Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said: “We are pleased that the Education
Secretary convened today’s meeting with education unions. The
meeting was constructive but largely unsatisfactory in that our
concerns over the long-term erosion of teacher pay and
conditions, the inadequacy of this year’s pay award, and the
ongoing teacher recruitment and retention crisis, remain
unresolved.
“We are pleased that there was at least a commitment from the
Education Secretary to look jointly at our respective submissions
to the pay review body for next year’s school teacher pay award.
However, that does not address the shortcomings with this year’s
below-inflation award, or the fact that leader and teacher pay
has fallen in real terms by a fifth since 2010. We cannot go on
like this. The government missed its target for recruiting
trainee secondary teachers by 40% this year, and nearly a third
of teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying.
It is increasingly difficult for schools to be able to put
teachers in front of classes. Pay and conditions must be improved
together with sufficient funding for schools to be able to afford
these costs.
“We are expecting further talks to take place in the near future,
and we sincerely hope that these issues can be resolved through
discussion rather than industrial action. However, these talks
must lead to a positive outcome.”
