Pickets will be placed on schools across Northern Ireland today as thousands of non-teaching staff in the education service stage a one-day strike.
More than 5,000 members of Northern Ireland's largest public service union, NIPSA, together with an estimated 5,000 members of Unison and the T&G, are striking over Government funding of education that has already forced education boards to make cuts in services.
Staff - including classroom assistants, dinner ladies technicians, and caretakers - are striking. The unions believe most schools will be affected and that many will be forced to close.
Public protests are due to be held outside education board headquarters, along with a march and rally in Belfast city centre.
NIPSA general secretary John Corey called on new Education Minister Angela Smith to honour the government's election pledges and reverse threatened cutbacks.
Mr Corey said: The strike is not just about protecting jobs, although redundancies are inevitable if Government cutbacks of over £30 million a year for the next three years go ahead."
The unions said they believed they had the support of the political parties for their action as well as the public.
Ms Smith said: "We should all be working together, not against each other and that's why it is deeply regrettable that today's industrial action is taking place."
PA