TARGETED strike action by teachers will see children in Dunfermline miss out on more school than their counterparts across Fife and Scotland.

Members of the EIS union who are based in the city will walk out on additional days this month and next in escalated protests directed at MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville.

The SNP politician is both Dunfermline's Holyrood representative and Cabinet Secretary for Education.

The constituency is one of five chosen for targeted action - the others include those held by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister - as unions mark one year of lobbying for better pay.

Workers have demanded a 10 per cent wage rise but the Scottish Government has ruled this out as unaffordable, instead offering a 5 per cent increase.

Shirley-Anne Somerville said: "Escalation of strike action by targeting pupils, parents and carers in certain parts of the country does not change the financial reality the government is operating in."

The move means that, in addition to national strike action already called for February 28 and March 1 and 20 days of rolling strikes across all local authority areas between March 12 and April 21, pupils in Dunfermline are likely to face six further days of teacher walkouts in February and March. 

Of the five constituencies targeted, four will be called out on three consecutive days from February 22 to February 24 and all five will be affected by another three days from March 7. 

Stephen Kerr, Scottish Conservative education spokesperson, commented: "These strikes are a mess of Shirley-Anne Somerville’s making, and this latest escalation makes that inescapably clear.

"The EIS’s targeted strike action – in the constituencies of Shirley-Anne Somerville, John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon – leaves the public in no doubt as to who they hold responsible for the repeated failure to resolve the pay dispute."