Education unions have said strikes can still be called in England despite the Treasury considering an improved offer.
Mary Bousted, the joint secretary general of the National Education Union (NEU), welcomed the suggestions for a 5% pay rise, but feared it would still equate to a pay cut after taking inflation into account. .
The school teacher review body, the independent group that advises the government on pay, is said to have told the Department of Education (DfE) that its proposed 3% increase for experienced teachers was inadequate. and instead has recommended 5%.
The STRB is due to publish its recommendations before the end of this month, based on government proposals and input from school leaders and teachers ’unions.
In December, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, told the STRB that he wanted a 3% salary increase for experienced teachers next year and 2% the following year, as well as a more pronounced increase for recent recruits, as part of a Conservative manifesto commitment by teachers who are starting to raise salaries to £ 30,000 a year.
But rapid increases in the cost of living have kept Zahawi’s proposal out of date, and last month caused England’s two main education unions, the National Education Union and the NASUWT, to threaten to hold votes. strike later this year.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Zahawi has formally approached the Treasury to approve salary increases of 5%, and teachers in the first five years of his career receive a 9% increase.
The DfE declined to comment, describing the report as “speculation”.
Patrick Roach, the general secretary of NASUWT, said the plans “did not come close” to what was needed and accused ministers of refusing to pursue the profession. “Deepening the cost-of-living crisis along with 12 years of real pay cuts for teachers require a genuine commitment to restore pay for teachers from September,” Roach said.
Bousted said the latest numbers of applications for teacher training courses revealed an “absolutely disastrous” picture in several subjects, making it difficult to replace teachers who drop out in search of better salaries and workloads.
“If we do not receive a much better salary offer, we will try to vote for our partners during the autumn term, in October. But we don’t want to do that, ”Boutsted told the BBC.“ We are asking Nadhim Zahawi to commit directly to us and negotiate; we are ready to do it and there is time to do it. “
Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that teachers ’salary levels fell by 4-5% for new and less experienced teachers between 2007 and 2021, while teachers’ salaries with more experience fell 8% in real terms during the same period.
The DfE has said any salary increase would be taken out of existing budgets, as part of next year’s £ 4bn increase in the total school budget in the latest spending review.
However, rising inflation, especially on rising energy costs, has strained school finances. Luke Sibieta of the IFS said that while school budgets could “probably” cope with a 4% salary increase, a 5% or higher increase may require additional government funding.
The increases would mainly affect public school teachers, not those who teach sixth or upper cycle classes.