ASCL comment on teachers’ pay announcement

Responding to the government’s announcement about teachers’ pay, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“The government has managed to achieve the worst of all worlds by announcing a derisory pay settlement for teachers which schools cannot afford to deliver.

“The much-trailed award of 2.75% is well below what is needed to make up for years of erosion in the real value of pay, or to improve teacher recruitment and retention at a time of severe shortages.

“Worse still, our reading of the government’s statement is that the first 2% of the award will have to come from existing school budgets which are already under intense pressure and cannot sustain more unfunded costs.

“It is inevitable that this will result in more cutbacks, and while schools will do their best to implement the increase, we would not be surprised if some are unable to do so.

“The fact that this announcement has been made so late is not at all helpful for schools as they have had no time to factor these costs into next year’s budgets.”