Concern has been raised that pay rises for Welsh
teachers, due in September, will be left un-funded by the Welsh
Government, following a refusal by the Education Secretary to
commit to provide funding.
A pay-rise for teachers in both Wales and England, of
between 1.5% and 3.5%, was announced by the Westminster
Government last month. Decisions on teachers’ pay and
conditions remain reserved to Westminster politicians, with
responsibility due to be transferred to Wales in September.
The Westminster Education Secretary claimed, when making the
announcement, that increases will be funded for English teachers
from the Department of Education, but no announcement has been
made on funding for teachers in Wales.
Following the announcement, Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Education
Secretary, AM wrote to the Welsh
Government’s Education Secretary, calling for clarity on whether
the Welsh Government will provide Local Authorities with
additional funding to cover the cost of
the pay-rises for Welsh teachers. A response from the
Education Secretary failed to give that commitment.
Commenting, Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Education Secretary, AM, said:
“Welsh teachers have been over-worked and under-paid for far too
long and the announcement of a pay-rise last month was
well overdue.
“As the pay-rise in England will be funded from the
existing English education budget, it is up to the Welsh
Government to fund the pay-rise for Welsh teachers. It
is deeply concerning that the Education Secretary is unwilling to
commit to doing so, in the absence of funding being provided by
the Westminster Government.
“Plaid Cymru fought long and hard to ensure the cap on
NHS pay was lifted in Wales and thankfully, the Welsh
Government eventually agreed to lift the cap after finding itself
in the shameful position of being the last country in the UK to
do so. Surely they cannot now put up the same resistance to
funding a pay-rise for our hard-working teachers. If a
Tory Government in Westminster can provide funding for teachers
in England, then surely the Welsh Government can do so in Wales.
“Our teachers deserve to be paid a decent wage and the Welsh
Government has to stump up to make sure
this pay-rise is fairly funded. The worrying
alternative to not doing so is that hard-pressed schools would
have to find the additional funding and that would inevitably
mean staff redundancies.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The correspondence between Plaid Cymru's Shadow Education
Secretary, , and the Welsh Government's
Cabinet Secretary for Education are attached to this email.
