Teachers in Glasgow have voted ‘overwhelmingly’ for strike action in response to Glasgow City Council’s plans to slash teacher numbers across the city.

In a consultative ballot, more than 5000 members of the EIS union’s Glasgow branch voted 96% in favour of industrial action short of a strike, with 90% also backing strike action in an effort to protect jobs in schools.

As part of a recent SNP-Green budget deal, Glasgow City Council is planning to cut up to 450 teaching posts over the next three years. The Herald has previously reported that the process for carrying out an initial cut of 172 positions is already well underway, and revealed the 45 primary schools that will be worst-affected by the proposals.

Parents and teachers have repeatedly raised concerns about issues such as additional support needs provision, teacher workload, and pupil safety, and a series of targeted protests have already taken place. The Glasgow City Parents Group is planning a ‘March for Education’ on Monday, June 24.

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Jane Gow, the Secretary of EIS Glasgow, said: “The EIS is crystal clear that the loss of jobs vital to education provision in Glasgow will irreparably damage the life chances of many of the city’s young people and most especially those with additional support needs.

“Already 45 of our Primary Schools will see all teachers fully class committed with only the head teacher available to provide support for all pupils, staff and parents. This will mean there is little or no capacity for small group or one to one provision for those pupils in most need of nurture, literacy and numeracy support.

“Fewer teachers in the Secondary sector where pupil rolls are increasing will undoubtedly lead to larger class sizes which will see a dramatic reduction in teachers’ ability to attend to the needs of their most vulnerable pupils.

The steady erosion of funding to education in Glasgow has impacted on our ASN sector with young people who have complex needs being placed in schools not designed to meet those needs. This has had the most profound effect on our most vulnerable of pupils and seen a dramatic rise in violent incidents because of a severe decrease in resources to support dysregulated behaviours.

“Teachers in Glasgow have today said No to cutting teacher numbers and the irreparable damage this would inflict on our young people now and in decades to come. This Consultative Ballot will be followed by a statutory one if there is no movement from GCC to end this dispute and reverse these swingeing cuts to education in Glasgow.”

A council spokeswoman said: “We will await the official confirmation and will continue to engage with our trade union colleagues.”