ASCL comment on teacher pay award

Commenting on a report in The Times that teachers are in line for a pay rise of 2.75%, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“A pay award of 2.75% falls short of the 5% that we have called for alongside other unions, and which we believe is desperately needed to address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

“The government continually misses its targets for recruiting teachers and its own statistics show that a third of teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying. When will it get the message that it needs to do more to attract people into teaching and then to keep hold of them?

“It is reported that there will be some extra money for schools to pay for the rise. However, it is not clear whether it will be fully or just partially-funded. It is essential that any pay award is fully funded because schools simply cannot afford another cost pressure on budgets which have been battered by real-terms cuts.

“It is also not clear whether 2.75% is across-the-board for all teachers and leaders, or whether it is an average figure with different categories of teachers receiving different pay awards as happened in last year’s settlement. School leaders and teachers on the upper pay range were very badly treated in that settlement and this must not happen again.”