HUNDREDS of striking teachers packed Southampton’s Guildhall Square today.

More than 300 public sector workers from across Hampshire, armed with banners and placards, flocked to the mass rally as they joined the biggest national strike for five years in a bitter row over pensions.

The 24-hour walkout by members of the National Association of Teachers (NUT), Association of Teachers and Lecturers, University and College Union (ATL) and Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), has seen 120 schools completely close in the county and 50 partially closed.

The first speaker to address the crowd was Hugh Morgan, president of Southampton NUT.

He said: ““On Tuesday David Cameron said that we are wrong to take strike action today.

“Well I’ve got a message from Mr Cameron, perhaps if he had been educated in any one of our many excellent state schools he might have learned the difference between right and wrong and realised that what is wrong is backing out of a freely negotiated agreement. “What we are doing here today is most definitely right.”

They were due to be joined at 12.30pm by other council workers on strike.

Hundreds of schools and libraries across Hampshire are shut today.

Driving tests and job centre appointments were also disrupted by teachers, civil servants and other public sector workers who were staging the biggest national strike for five years in a row over pensions.

It comes on top of ongoing industrial action by up to 2,400 Southampton council workers in a dispute over pay cuts.

Two-thirds of Southampton’s schools were completely or partly closed. Three-quarters of the city’s infant, junior, primary schools were affected along with over half of secondary schools.

Hampshire County Council said 44 of its 534 schools had confirmed they would be closed or part-opening, but the actual number could be higher.

All libraries in Southampton, except Bitterne, were closed today as more than 300 council workers including librarians, bin men, traffic wardens, Itchen Bridge toll collectors, and street cleaners remained on strike. They were joined today by 20 children’s workers.

Job centres in Southampton and Winchester were open but the PCS claimed they would only be offering limited services, while people ringing call centres for advice would be met by recorded messages.

Tax offices were also set to be hit by walkouts, which the PCS said would disrupt tax processing and other services.

It was unclear how many of the 300 staff at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency head office in Southampton would walk out as part of the PCS strike.

The MCA said it had contingency cover the three shifts that could be affected at the Solent Coastguard Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre.