Children are failing exams in freezing classrooms as cash-strapped schools struggle to pay heating bills, striking teachers have warned.
Other schools have no money to pay for basic essential equipment including pens, pencils, glue and paper, they claim.
National Education Union (NEU) members said “overworked and underpaid” teachers are quitting the profession in their droves.
They said unqualified agency staff are teaching youngsters because of a UK-wide shortage of teachers.
Angry teachers spoke out at a rally in Birmingham during the second day of the NEU’s regional strike action.
One secondary school teacher, who did not want to be named over fears for his job, warned children are suffering.
He said: “I had a boy yesterday complaining that the classroom was too cold during his mock exam, but there was nothing I could do.
“We’ve been warned about heating costs, so we’ve had to leave classrooms cold. It’s heartbreaking. Kids are failing exams.”
Kate Beaumont, a teacher at Baginton Fields School in Coventry, said cost-cutting was affecting her pupils.
She told the Mirror: “It’s having a massive impact on children’s education, there’s no doubt about it.
“I work with children with special educational needs, specifically autism, and it’s heartbreaking what’s happening.
“We have supply teacher after supply teacher coming in because we just don’t have the staff.
“Teachers and teaching assistants are leaving to work in supermarkets and cafes because it’s less stressful and they get better money.
“Why would you want the stress that comes with the job, when a teenager working in Costa gets better money?
“I do it because I love the profession and want to help the children I teach, but it’s getting harder and harder.
“The children at my school need routine and familiarity, and constantly changing teachers really affects them.
“Every time a new supply teacher comes in we have to tell them about each child’s specific needs.
“But you might only see that teacher for one day and then they never come back and you have to go through it all again.”
Leah Feldman, a teacher at Barford St Peter’s Primary School near Warwick, said she faces new challenges every day.
“We don’t have enough funding to give our children the basics, and that’s completely unacceptable,” she said.
“Every child should go to school and get pens, pencils, glue sticks, but we can’t guarantee that any more.
“We’ve been banned from printing things in colour because it costs too much money.
“The is a massive lack of support from the government, which knows there are not enough teachers.
“I don’t think the children’s education is suffering, but that’s only because teachers are working harder than ever.
“I’ve been a teacher for eight years and I’ve never known things to be this tough.
“It’s going to lead to mass burn-out, and there are not enough teacher coming through to replace those that quit.”
NEU boss Mary Bousted told the rally that the Tory government are “fighting like rats in a sewer”.
“They are scared of the next election because they know they are going to be kicked out of government,” she said.
“Our schools are running on empty. Teachers are exhausted at the end of every single day.
“They have to do the work of the teachers that have left the profession.
"It’s gruelling and exhausting work.”
Other rallies by striking teachers were held in Cambridge, Leicester and Nottingham on Wednesday.
Strikes will hit schools in the south and south west of England on Thursday.
Nationwide strikes are planned for March 15 and 16.
The government has offered a 5% pay rise, which is around half the current rate of inflation.
Union bosses held meetings with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan following the first teachers strike on February 1.
But this did not lead to any additional offers.
Ms Keegan said: “As a government, we have made a serious offer to the leaders of the National Education Union and Royal College of Nursing: pause this week’s strikes, get round the table and talk about pay, conditions and reforms.
“It is hugely disappointing the NEU has thus far refused this serious offer and has not joined the Royal College of Nurses in calling off strikes.
“Instead of sitting round a table discussing pay, the NEU will once again cause disruption for children and families.
“Children deserve to be in school, and further strike action is simply unforgivable, especially after everything children have been through because of the pandemic.”
