FIVE secondary schools in West Dunbartonshire have closed as teachers walked out over money saving plans.
Members of the Educational Insitute of Scotland (EIS) are picketing Clydebank High School, Dumbarton Academy, Our Lady and St Patrick's High School, St Peter the Apostle High School and Vale of Leven Academy.
Some 5,000 pupils are affected by the action although other staff are expected to school as normal.
The one-day strike follows plans by West Dunbartonshire Council to save money by cutting the number of promoted staff.
Teachers formed picket lines outside the five schools holding placards with the slogans: "Support the teachers who support your child".
Other banners read: "NO cuts to your children's education" and "Our pupils can't afford your savings".
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, said: "Teachers are taking this action today as a last resort to defend the quality of education provision in West Dunbartonshire secondary schools.
"While we appreciate that strike action can be disruptive, we also hope that pupils and parents will understand the reasons for today's action and will support our campaign to protect quality education for all Secondary pupils in West Dunbartonshire."
The action is in protest at council restructuring plans, which unions say will damage education and add to "already severe" workload.
However, the council argues the practice of cutting the numbers of promoted posts is widespread across Scotland and will result in no reduction in teaching time.
Some 88% of EIS members involved in the dispute voted for industrial action in a recent ballot.
Following today's strike, EIS members will start working to contract from Wednesday.
A council spokeswoman said the authority is doing all it can to find a solution and apologised to pupils and parents for the disruption.
She said: "We met with senior union officials three days ago to try to avoid the need for strike action and presented a package of nine new measures that would address the issue of workload at our secondary schools.
"We also offered to work with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to resolve this through negotiation. Unfortunately, EIS was unwilling to postpone the strike action.
"It is important to highlight that the proposed structures exist in most councils in Scotland and the unions have never previously taken industrial action in opposition to them."
The spokesowman said the proposed structure was "more generous" in terms of school management posts than many other councils.
She added: "The management restructure will result in no reduction in teachers, no reduction in teaching time and no reduction in management time."
Teachers who do not get one of the new promoted posts will have their salaries protected for three years.
The proposals will mean schools no longer having a dedicated principal teacher in charge of every subject. Instead, subjects will be grouped together in so-called faculties with one principal teacher in charge.
Unions argue the move results in departments with faculty heads who have no understanding of the subjects they are in charge of.
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