The teachers will stop work for up to two hours to discuss further industrial action against the State Government's new staffing policies, under which principals will be able to individually hire teachers instead of having them assigned by the Education Department.

The Government says the changes will give teachers more career options but there are fears they will create staff shortages in regional schools.

Some teachers believe the move will undermine an incentive scheme, under which teachers are encouraged to work in regional areas in exchange for a placement on the top of the transfers list for a more desirable posting later in their careers.

The Education Department says most schools have arranged to supervise students during the stop-work meeting but about 70 schools will be forced to close.

The department's director-general, Michael Coutts-Trotter, says it is unreasonable for the unions to take industrial action.

"I think major industrial action is a disproportionate response to a sensible and modest change that will allow school communities a bit more say in the teachers that come into their schools..." he said.

"Unfortunately, it puts parents and caregivers in a very difficult position. Their ordinary arrangements are disturbed.

"They have to find somebody else to care for their children if they can't do it themselves because they're at work."

But Teachers' Federation president Maree O'Halloran has blamed the State Government for the dispute.

"The Government literally walked away from the negotiating table and said that we will no longer have agreements about staffing," he said.

"It doesn't seem very sensible to me. I don't understand what this Government is planning to do and I don't think they understand what the effect will be on country schools."

State Education Minister John Della Bosca says he regrets any disruption caused to families but he hopes the stop-work meeting will give teachers an opportunity to learn more about the Government's plans.

"When they see that the plans that we have are very modest, that they only deal with a very small number of questions to improve the options for school communities and the options for teachers and their professional development, I think they'll come around to supporting the Government's position," he said. "That might take a while."

Source: By Australian Broadcasting Corporation