Industrial Dispute
Resolution
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con): I met some National Education
Union reps in my office for an hour and a half last
week, and they were shocked to hear that I was going to say this
to the House today. If the STRB has recommended that teachers
should get a 6.5% pay rise—it was meant to report in May,
something I signed off when I was in the Department—they should
be given that pay rise. The Minister will rightly ask where that
money is going to come from. I say we take it out of the foreign
aid budget, year in, year out.
The Secretary of State for Education (): Following the union’s
rejection of the Government’s fair, reasonable and funded offer,
the report has been submitted by the independent STRB. I will not
comment on speculation or leaks, or indeed on funding, but we
will consider the recommendations and publish our response in due
course.
Teachers: Recruitment
and Retention
(Jarrow) (Lab): The Minister
mentions the data released last week, but it also highlights the
unacceptable consequences of real-terms cuts to teachers’ pay and
unmanageable workloads. It shows that posts without a teacher
have more than doubled in the past two years. Last week, I met
with NASUWT North East and the South Tyneside branch of the
National Education
Union which raised concerns about the impact of
the recruitment and retention crisis. When will the Minister take
action to tackle this crisis by increasing teachers’ pay and
reducing their workload?
The Minister for Schools (): In terms of teachers’ pay, we
are waiting for the Government’s response. We have received and
are looking at the School Teachers Review Body’s recommendations
now, and we will respond in the normal way and on the normal
timing. In terms of workload, we set up three important workload
working groups, and over the years that has resulted in the
working hours of teachers coming down by five hours a week, and
we have pledged to do more to reduce that further.
