Commenting on the Education Secretary’s letter to the School
Teachers’ Review Body for the 2022/23 pay round, Kevin
Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
“Teacher recruitment has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels and
teacher shortages exist across the curriculum. The impact of
previous failures to recruit and retain are still being felt,
including the loss of the skills of experienced teachers. We need
to recruit and retain teachers across the curriculum to build a
high-skill, high-wage economy and we can only do so by
significantly improving pay for all teachers.
“And teacher retention is a huge problem too - with a third of
beginner teachers leaving in the first five years in the
profession.
“In this context the Secretary of State's remit to the STRB is
open but unclear.
“If he remains committed to implementing a £30,000 starting
salary in two years' time, that is welcome. That will require an
8% pay rise on starting salaries in 2022 and a further 8% in
2023.
“But we also need a pay structure that helps keep teachers in the
profession thereafter. The Secretary of State refers to
'significant, but sustainable, uplifts' for other teachers. The
NEU believes that these percentage increases are needed for other
teachers as well to begin the process of restoring the huge
real-terms pay cuts since 2010.
“However, the Government has already effectively set a much worse
remit for the STRB through the Treasury's evidence to the review
bodies, which has been spun as a 'warning shot' to the STRB and
the other review bodies not to recommend significant pay
increases following the end of the public sector pay freeze. This
is despite the huge real terms cuts to pay since 2010 and a pay
freeze in 2021 when RPI inflation was at 4.9%. RPI is now at its
highest for 30 years.
“The Government can afford to pay teachers properly and the
country can't afford it not to.
“The STRB must act independently and not follow the Government's
political choice to continue to hold down pay for teachers. Cuts
to teacher pay damage education. The evidence is clear that
cutting teacher pay against inflation has contributed to serious
recruitment and retention problems as well as hitting teacher
living standards. The STRB has already recognised that the
competitiveness of teacher pay has been damaged. To have any
credibility, the STRB must resist Government attempts to
constrain it and must recommend a substantial pay increase for
all teachers.
“We cannot allow teacher pay to continue to be cut in real terms
and against other graduate professions. We must also see urgent
action to reduce teacher workload. It's time to Value Educators
and Value Education.”
