Teachers' unions unite to highlight 'national crisis' in profession
Six unions call for pay increases above proposed 1% annual level, and warn more pupils are being taught by unqualified staff
Teachers’ unions are urging the government to ward off a “national crisis” in the profession, warning that increasing numbers of pupils face being taught by unqualified staff.
In an unusual joint submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) – the pay review body for England and Wales – six unions, including the National Union of Teachers, have combined to call for pay increases above the 1% annual level the Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to offer over the next four years.
The letter highlights widespread concern within education over looming problems with recruitment, as schools report difficulties in attracting and retaining staff along with the squeeze on school budgets, which remain frozen in England despite being expected to fund pay increases.
“The STRB must accept that we are facing a national crisis, not ‘a challenge’ in teacher supply, which means more children will not be taught by teachers qualified in the subject they teach,” argues the submission, whose signatories include the National Association of Head Teachers and Undeb Cenedlaethol Athrawon Cymru, the national union of teachers of Wales.
“The public sector pay policy of the past five years has depressed teachers’ real earnings to the extent that recruitment and retention are being seriously harmed,” the letter concludes, saying that the DfE’s published data “has failed to capture the scale of the crisis”.
In response, the DfE said: “Unlike those who are constantly claiming there is a crisis and scaremongering, this government has worked with the profession to raise the status of teaching and is attracting the best and brightest to a career in the classroom, with the result that record highly qualified graduates and experienced career changers are now teaching in our schools.
“But we are determined to go further, and recognise that some schools find it harder to recruit the teachers they need, which is why we are expanding the great Teach First and Schools Direct [recruitment] programmes, and we are launching the national teaching service, which will mean more great teachers in schools in every corner of the country.”
The unions also claim that school budgets are “at breaking point”, requiring the government to fully fund pay increases and other costs such as national insurance increases coming in later this year.
“Four more years of pay austerity is a false economy,” said Brian Lightman, Teachers' unions unite to highlight 'national crisis' in profession | Education | The Guardian: