Unions representing the overwhelming majority of teachers and
school leaders have issued a united call for a fully funded,
inflation-plus pay increase as part of a restorative correction
for teachers and school leaders to tackle the recruitment and
retention crisis. The unions have also called for
significant improvements in workload. Repairing the damage to pay
and conditions is essential to address teacher shortages so is in
the interests of parents and pupils, as well as of teachers and
school leaders.
The unions have called on the STRB to reject the Government’s
attempts to limit it to working within the existing inadequate
school funding envelope. The Chancellor’s Spring Budget
confirmed no additional funding for schools which will result in
further cuts to pay, jobs and support for pupils. Real terms pay
cuts, sky high workload and teacher shortages show that we
desperately need additional investment to save our education
service. The unions reject the Government’s arbitrary
definition of “affordability” – it takes no account of the huge
cost to our education service and our economy of not properly
investing in education.
The Government refuses to face the reality of a recruitment and
retention crisis caused by its own political choices to cut
teacher and school leader pay and to refuse to make the
additional investment needed in our education service.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders,said: “Fourteen years of pay
erosion and workload pressures have caused an increasingly
damaging teacher recruitment and retention crisis. Schools are
often left struggling to put teachers in front of classes. The
Government must get a grip.”
Community General Secretary Roy Rickhuss and Helen
Osgood, Community's National Officer for Education and Early
Years, said: "We have repeatedly warned the government
that their strategy is failing. What we must do, is improve the
conditions for all staff in schools: improving pay, increasing
PPA time, and reducing stress and workload. But this will
only be the start. We need to retain and reward experience and
celebrate all our school staff, and this will take significant
investment."
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the school leaders’
union, the NAHT, said: “Pay in schools has fallen off a
cliff since 2010, and leaders are at their wits' end trying to
get the staff they need. The recruitment and retention crisis is
fuelling a crushing workload - leaders are forced to make class
sizes bigger, have no choice but to ask teachers to cover
unfamiliar subjects and often have to cover lessons themselves.
There simply won't be enough leaders and teachers to give
children the education they deserve – over half of leaders are
looking to leave the profession, and few senior teachers aspire
to headship because of the pressures.”
Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary, NASUWT
– The Teachers’ Union, said: “The Government’s
approach to pay over the past 14 years has systematically failed.
The country’s schools are in crisis. There
is a crisis of teacher supply and pay is a central factor. Unless
and until the depth of this crisis is recognised, and a
commitment made to use the pay mechanism to restore the status of
teachers, schools will not be able to recruit the teachers and
headteachers they need to meet the needs of all children and
young people.”
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National
Education Union, said: “We have had enough of the
Government underfunding education. The evidence is clear – our
education service needs urgent significant additional investment
to secure a major correction in teacher pay and improvements to
workload, so that we properly value teachers and school leaders
and fix the recruitment and retention crisis.”
