Members of the two largest unions organising in the North have endorsed ballots for industrial action including strikes.
Unions are angry at a pay offer. They rejected a deal that would see staff receive no across the board pay rise for 2015/16, and a one per cent cost of living uplift for 2016/17.
The unions are due to meet employers again this month, however, education minister Peter Weir says there is no more money.
The NASUWT has already staged a one-day walk-out in Belfast and Newtownabbey with more action to take place this month in counties Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh.
In addition, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) is due to have a Northern Ireland-wide strike on Wednesday, January 18.
Seamus Hanna, chairman of the INTO Northern Committee, says teachers’ goodwill and professionalism “will no longer be allowed to be taken for granted”.
He said: “Teachers remain the only group within education to be denied any increase for 2015/16. Despite the sincerity of our efforts all attempts to find a just settlement and avoid the closure of schools have now failed.”
Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official for Northern Ireland, says his members regret any disruption to pupils and parents.
“Unless teachers are recognised and rewarded as highly-skilled professionals and have working conditions which free them to focus on teaching and learning, there will be a long-term detrimental impact on the quality of education provision for children,” he added.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Ulster Teachers’ Union (UTU) are not striking on the same issue. Instead they are refusing to cooperate with school inspections.
UTU general secretary Avril Hall Callaghan said: “Seldom have I seen such strength of feeling, but it’s galvanised this time by teachers’ fears over what they see as the marching erosion of resources from classrooms which is potentially leaving exposed our most vulnerable children.”