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Thousands of schools are set to close for a day next week because of a teachers' strike, amid rising industrial unrest in the public sector.
The two largest classroom unions are staging the stoppage on Tuesday as part of their campaign for a boost to London cost-of-living payments that dwarfs firefighters' demands.
The action by the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers comes during the eight-day strike over pay by the Fire Brigades Union.
Firefighters walked out on Friday after they claimed the Government scuppered a 16% offer from local authority employers.
Ministers are determined to keep expensive pay deals for public sector workers to a minimum for fear of higher inflation.
But the 16% deal firefighters thought they had won - against an original demand of a 40% pay increase - is dwarfed by the percentage increase in London allowances sought by teachers.
They want the in
ner and outer London allowances to go up from £3,105 and £2,043 respectively to £6,111 - the same as Metropolitan Police officers get.
The "fringe" allowance covering outlying boroughs inside the M25 should also be more than doubled to over £2,000 from £792, they said.
In March, a one-day strike over the same issue by the NUT alone forced the shutdown of hundreds of schools in inner and outer London but ministers were unmoved.
Tuesday's walkout will oblige 5,000 primaries and secondaries to close for the day, the unions claimed.
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