TAVISTOCK, Okehampton and Callington colleges were partially closed yesterday (Wednesday) due to a teachers strike over pay, pensions and conditions of service but the majority of primary schools in West Devon and East Cornwall were not affected.

The colleges said that due to some teachers being members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and taking part in the strike, the sites were closed to the younger students as there were not enough staff to ensure that the children were safely supervised.

Tavistock College remained open for students in years 10, 11, 12 and 13 because of the run up to examinations. Okehampton and Callington colleges were open to years 11,12 and 13.

The majority of primary schools remained open to all pupils although some were closed to certain year groups.

This is the third strike by teaching unions in three years over pay and pensions but this time the NUT is going it alone.

NUT regional secretary Andy Woolley said that the union had held off industrial action for some time hoping that Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove would engage in talks about the problems which saw 40% of new teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying and many older teachers leaving as well.

'In the first three years of this lcovernment workload increased by an average of about nine hours a week taking primary school teachers up to 60 hours a week and secondary teachers to 56 hours a week,' he said.

'During this time the real value of their pay has fallen by about 15per cent and their pension contributions have been increased by 50per cent whilst benefits have worsened and the retirement age has increased to 68 from 60 just a short while ago.'

Mr Woolley said the threat of action did persuade Michael Gove to agree to some talks but he had refused to discuss the concerns of teachers and just wished to discuss the pace of implementation of his own proposals which were part of the problem.

But the strike has caused anger amongst many working parents who had to take a day off work, unpaid, to look after their children. Many said levels of pay for teachers were way above what they were earning in the private sector.

Mr Woolley said just because people were poorly paid in the private sector it did not mean that teachers should be badly paid.

'It means we should address the poor pay of other people,' he said. 'Teachers earn significantly less money than people they attended university with who have gained an equal level of qualifications.'