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.”
