Commenting on the proposed teacher pay award for 2020/21, Geoff
Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“We welcome the government’s action in increasing teacher
starting salaries to make the profession more competitive in the
graduate jobs market and to help tackle teacher shortages. But we
are very concerned about two other aspects of the pay proposals.
“First, we do not think it is fair or reasonable that the pay
award is much lower for experienced teachers and leaders after
years of pay austerity which has seen the real value of salaries
deteriorate. This won’t help to keep long-serving teachers in the
profession and feels like a kick in the teeth.
“Second, the government believes that schools will be able to
afford the cost of the pay award from the extra investment it is
putting into education over the course of three years. But in
reality the amount that schools receive in this settlement varies
widely according to a number of factors, and we are concerned
that many schools will not be able to afford this cost. Even in
the best case, it means that most of the extra money provided in
the settlement will go on the pay award with very little left to
reverse the impact of real-terms cuts in government funding in
recent years.
“We recognise that the government has the best of intentions, but
the problem is that it is not investing enough money to do the
right thing by all teachers, or even to ensure that schools are
able to afford to pay the award within the limited scope it is
proposing.”
