THREE main teachers' unions in the north are set to ballot their members for strike action.
It comes after members of another union held a one-day strike last week that affected nearly 80 schools in Belfast and Newtownabbey.
Members of NASUWT walked out last Wednesday over pay, job security and workload.
And now the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) will this month ask their members to vote on strike action.
In October, all five main teaching unions in Northern Ireland rejected an offer that saw their pay frozen in 2015/16 and a one per cent rise in 2016/17.
The Ulster Teachers' Union will today ballot its membership of more than 6,500 following its series of school gate pickets last month.
General secretary Avril Hall Callaghan described the ballot as the "very last resort".
"There exists among teachers a strength of feeling about this that has been seldom seen before," she said.
She added: "Teachers feel rightly incensed that despite the fact they have kept schools running as usual, even with reduced teaching and support staff in many cases, this has not been appreciated by the minister."
NASUWT previously announced its members elsewhere in Northern Ireland would stage further one-day strikes early next year.
Education minister Peter Weir has called the strike "futile", while the union said it had been "left with no choice".
