ANGRY teachers are set to protest at the Government's proposed education reforms.

Teaching unions are unhappy about the new education White Paper and claim schools will be forced into being run like "supermarkets".

Members of the Greenwich and Lewisham branches of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) will be protesting outside Woolwich Town Hall today.

Among the protesters will be teachers from Crofton School, Manwood Road, Lewisham, and Plumstead Manor School, Old Mill Road, Plumstead, who are striking in protest at pay and conditions.

The NUT claims the proposed reforms, which will see the creation of more independent trust' schools, will turn schools into rivals. It also fears job and wage cuts.

Greenwich NUT branch secretary Tim Woodcock said: "This represents the privatisation of education.

"Teaching children is not like running a supermarket. Private sponsors have no right to control our schools."

Lewisham NUT secretary Martin Powell-Davies added: "A free market in schools means thousands of youngsters will have their chances of a good education thrown onto the scrapheap. We plan to put the White Paper into the dustbin instead."