Watch: 'The future is looking fairly grim,' says Auckland principal, as teachers' strike underway across New Zealand

Schools are closed as thousands of primary school teachers and principals across the country go on a full-day strike today over pay negotiations.

New Windsor School principal Glenn Bermingham told 1 NEWS on the picket line in Auckland this morning that the future "looks grim" for the primary education sector with lacking resources, low staffing numbers, retaining young graduates and increasing wages in line with the rising cost of living all major issues.

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"We've got a bit of a perfect storm at the moment, and this is critical for Jacinda and those people in Wellington to sit up and actually say, 'Yep, we need to put some resource in here, we need to be listening.'"

An Auckland teacher protesting on the frontline said teacher burnout and stress is common and "the children deserve more".