An independent pay review body has recommended that school teachers should be awarded a 6.5% pay increase in from September, it has been reported.
According to the Sunday Times, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) has recommended in its report to the government that the education sector needs a larger pay increase in 2023-24 than other areas of the public sector to keep it on a stable footing.
The suggested pay award is more than two percentage points higher than that offered by the Department for Education (DfE) and would apply for the 2023-24 financial year.
Teachers’ pay awards
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The STRB’s recommendations have not yet been published, but it is understood the report was submitted to the government last week.
Teaching unions welcomed the suggestion of a 6.5% pay rise, but some said it did not make up for the poor awards seen in recent years.
The National Education Union (NEU), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the NASUWT have all rejected the latest pay offer from the DfE, 4.3%.
Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said: “Teachers and school leaders overwhelmingly rejected [education secretary] Gillian Keegan’s last offer – both because it was too low and because it wasn’t fully funded.
“Since that rejection she has sought to hide behind the School Teachers’ Review Body saying that she is leaving it to them to make the decision on teacher pay. She now has the report and can no longer hide behind the STRB.
“This is significantly above the latest government offer of 4.3% which was roundly rejected by NEU members. However, it does not make up for the poor awards the STRB has made almost every year since 2010 – leading to declining rates of pay and enormous problems with teacher recruitment and retention.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said pay awards needed to be fully-funded by the government so schools did not have to make cuts to education services to fund pay rises.
“If true, this appears to be a step in the right direction in terms of addressing the worsening teacher recruitment and retention crisis facing schools, and towards restoring teacher and leader pay levels. It is a significant improvement on anything so far offered by the government and it is good to hear that the pay review body has asserted its independence,” he said.
“Ministers must face up to reality and ensure that teachers have the pay and conditions they deserve and that every school and college receives the additional funding they will need to deliver those pay awards in full” – Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT
“However, it is only one half of the equation. The other crucial factor is that any pay award is fully funded by the government at an individual school level, so that every school has enough money to be able to afford the costs of paying their teachers, without having to make cuts to education provision.”
The NASUWT said the government also needed to address teachers’ concerns about workload and working hours as well as pay.
“Ministers must face up to reality and ensure that teachers have the pay and conditions they deserve and that every school and college receives the additional funding they will need to deliver those pay awards in full,” said NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “This simply shows how out of touch the government’s offer of 4.5% is. Education is in crisis and the government now needs to listen to the profession and let us help them solve the crisis.”
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Many teaching unions are re-ballotting members for strike action, including the NEU, NAHT and NASUWT. The ASCL has announced its first-ever strike ballot, which will take place in the summer term.
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