The National Education Union is set to formally ballot its members for strike action over pay and funding, in a move blasted by the education secretary as “irresponsible and massively premature”. The sector is still awaiting the outcome of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report and its recommendations on teacher pay – as well as final decisions by government on future pay rises and how they will be funded. But the NEU said early reports indicated this “will not result in a fully-funded pay offer for teachers that exceeds inflation, nor in sufficient funding for schools to prevent redundancies and rises in workload”. The ballots of teachers and support staff across England’s state schools will take place “if the government does not take urgent action to address these issues”, the union said. Ballots are set to open on 3 October, and close on 15 December. ‘Schools are running on empty’ Announcing the move, NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said schools were “running on empty” while pay and workload issues “are driving many out of …