Teachers in Oxfordshire are likely to back plans for a one-day strike over Government plans to link their pay with pupils' exam results, say union leaders, writes Roseena Parveen.

Members of the National Union of Teachers Teachers in the county voted nine to one in favour of industrial action.

Mark Forder, NUT secretary, said: "We are disgusted with the way the Government has introduced this scheme. It's potentially disastrous and most unfair. This has upset Oxfordshire's teachers more than any other issue before.

"A survey we conducted locally suggested that members would be prepared to take some sort of action to stop it. We asked them soon after Christmas because we knew this was coming. About nine to one were in favour of industrial action."

The threat of the first national teachers strike for 31 years came in a vote at the national NUT conference in Harrogate on Monday. A national ballot is now expected to decide whether a one-day strike should go ahead.

Brenda Williams, secretary of the Council of Oxfordshire Teacher Organisations, said the county's teachers would be more likely to take part in a one-day strike rather than work to rule or other forms of industrial action.

She said: "I think its fair to say there are more people willing to disturb children's education for one day because working to rule is impossible that really would harm the children. Teachers' roles are so wide how do you decide which tasks you don't do?

"But with a one-day rally, we could involve the children and parents.

"People say striking would be letting the children down, but that's not true. All the evidence of surveys conducted nationally and local indicated people are now willing to make that stand to say this is appalling. Performance-related pay will do nothing to recruit, retain or motivate teachers. Mr Forder attacked suggestions that performance related pay would raise standards in the same way as Ofsted school inspections.

He said: "Inspections are one thing, performance related pay is another. They are not trying to achieve the same goal. An individual teacher in a school which fails an Ofsted report may or may not be recognised for their particular achievements under PRP.

"Performance related pay means teachers are being asked to prove their children do well as a direct result of a particular teacher's efforts.

"This is wrong. How do you know it is a result of current teaching, or the teacher who taught them six months ago, or the combined efforts of teachers who taught them when they were younger?

"It's quite ridiculous to attach it to the latest teacher in touch with particular children."

Mr Forder added that PRP failed to account for the fact that schools in deprived areas like Cowley were likely to produce lower results for broader reasons.

He said: "Ofsteds are notorious for being unfair and this is the same."

Sue Tanner, senior education officer for Oxfordshire, said: "We will await the outcome of any ballot. PRP is a national issue which we have no control over."