Teachers in England and Wales are taking part in the first national strike since 2016.
More than 100,000 are expected to walk out, the National Education Union (NEU) has said, along with university staff, civil servants, train and bus drivers.
As many as 23,000 schools could be impacted, though the extent of disruption is expected to vary.
The education secretary said a "majority" of schools would remain partially open.
Some schools were planning to make a decision over whether to close as late as Wednesday morning after assessing how many staff join the strike.
In Wales, striking teachers will be joined by support staff, while members of the National Association of Head Teachers begin action short of a strike.
Teachers are also striking in two parts of Scotland - Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen - as part of rolling industrial action.
About 500,000 workers are due to take part in walkouts across a range of sectors, making it the biggest strike in more than a decade, according to the Trades Union Congress.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan defended the government's record on school funding and told BBC Breakfast it "makes no sense to give inflation-busting pay rises to some of the workforce" at a time when prices are rising for everyone.
Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, accused ministers of failing to negotiate meaningfully on pay and said teachers had been "forced to stand up".
Ms Keegan rejected that, saying she has held five meetings with union leaders for "wide-ranging discussions" in recent weeks.
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner accused Rishi Sunak of "weak leadership" yesterday and urged him to come to the negotiating table to sort out the "chaos".
Zoe Thompson, the headteacher of Oasis Academy Hadley in Enfield, north London, said senior staff were "doing our best to stay open" in order to support students from deprived households.
Around half of all pupils would be in on a modified timetable, she said, to "keep them here and learning and safe".
She said some of her teachers had been left feeling "there was no other option left" to make the government overhaul school funding and pay.
Yvonne Brown, CEO of the Leading Learners Multi Academy Trust in Bradford and Wigan, said her schools would operate largely as normal because teachers can't afford to strike.
She said it would be "business as usual" in all four schools run by the trust because "most staff, including young teachers, are not able to take a day without pay".
Ms Bousted acknowledged teachers struggling to make ends meet had been left facing a "catch 22" over whether or not to take part.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that some members were working second jobs and struggling to pay for petrol to get to work.
A "toxic combination" of below inflation pay offers and high workloads was leading to a third of new teachers quitting within five years, she claimed.
Year 5 teacher Helen Butler will be joining a picket line in Portsmouth for the first time in her 26-year career. She has voted against strike action in the past - but this time feels different.
"We've got some teachers now that are going to food banks," she said, adding her salary had fallen in real terms over a decade.
Ms Butler said she loved her school, where she is an NEU representative, but there were insufficient resources and her workload had increased.
"We're given 10 glue sticks for a class of 30, because it's expensive. I've ended up buying my own," she said.
"I do not know one teacher who doesn't work in their holidays.
"What other job expects you to work in your holidays?"
Taking exams
Most state-school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% pay rise in 2022. But inflation means this is actually a cut, unions say. And they want to make sure it is not paid for out of school budgets.
Wednesday will be the first of seven national and regional NEU strike dates.
Schools have been advised to open for vulnerable pupils, key workers' children and those taking exams.
Some will open for certain classes only.
Children may be set work to do remotely - but striking teachers are not required to do so.
Paula Arnold, who works in a law firm in Poole, said she would not find out until Wednesday morning whether her daughters' schools would open.
"I don't know whether I'm going to be in or out [of the office] or working from home or unable to work," she said. And working from home with children was not easy - especially if they were not set work.
Ms Arnold said she wanted to stay supportive of striking teachers but needed more certainty to plan childcare.
"I end up just pulling my hair out because it's just tricky trying to juggle everything," she said.
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Schools in England will each see four days of strike action:
- three national days
- one affecting their region
Just over 53% of teachers in the NEU in England voted in its ballot - 90% of them supported a strike.
A secondary-school teacher in Cambridgeshire, who asked not to be named, said she understood why her colleagues were striking but she could not afford to lose the pay.
"Morally, it just doesn't sit right with me," she added.
"The kids have suffered so much through Covid and I just feel like striking and them missing another four days of school is not going to help anybody. They're already so far behind."
Teachers have already been on a national strike in Scotland - and action is continuing on a rolling basis. Most teachers in Northern Ireland will walk out for half a day on 21 February.
Teachers join a wave of public sector workers striking over pay and conditions.
Workers represented by seven different unions across the UK will strike on Wednesday.
They include:
- Civil servants across 124 government departments
- Rail workers at 15 different companies
- Some London bus drivers
- Lecturers, librarians and other university workers
Earlier, the Unison union announced its members in five ambulance services in England will strike on Friday of next week, as part of a dispute about pay and conditions.
The walkout will affect London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West.
Unison also says its members at the Environment Agency will join members of the Prospect union in striking for 12 hours next Wednesday. The action will include workers in flood forecasting and pollution control.
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2023-02-01 07:28:53Z
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