THE head teacher of a strike-hit Gwent school claims he is in the grip of a staffing and cash crisis caused by teachers' absenteeism.

Yesterday, 28 members of teaching union the NASUWT went on strike on the last day of term at Oakdale Comprehensive School to protest at teacher redundancies.

It is a problem across the UK at the moment, but head teacher Ian Jones claimed his school's problems stemmed from its high level of absenteeism among teaching staff and because some concerned parents had removed children from the school.

He said £148,000 was spent on supply teachers last year. The pupil roll has fallen by 77 in five years from 875 in 1997 to 798 last year. A shortfall of 73 pupils is expected when the autumn term begins; 173 left in July but only 100 are due to join the school.

The dispute with the NASUWT arose when staff numbers were cut by eleven full-time equivalent posts. Some cuts have been managed by the provision of alternative employment, early retirement and other voluntary means, but NASUWT remains in dispute over the education authority's intention to make two compulsory redundancies as of August 31.

Mr Jones said four full-time staff had been made redundant but two of those had decided to take voluntary early retirement while the other two had been re-deployed. The remaining seven teachers were on temporary contracts.

Chairman of the school governors, Eirlys Jones, said: "The question I would like to ask is, there are a number of redundancies throughout Wales, so why is Oakdale being targeted?

"Mr Jones is an inspirational, very hard working head teacher who has attempted to drag the school into the 21st century - sometimes kicking and screaming."

She said the many positive aspects of the school's inspection report last autumn and the eight per cent increase in SATS results at key stage, spoke for itself.

But Rex Phillips, a NASUWT regional official, reacted angrily to the suggestion that the problem was because of staff absenteeism and said if this were true, it was only due to the stress staff were under.

He said: "I believe some of the problems stem from the fact that the previous head teacher was a strong disciplinarian and that approach has not been continued by the current head teacher.

"There was also a great deal of concern about the amount of time that the new head teacher spent off site following his appointment."