NAHT calls for review of teacher pay

Union NAHT is set to submit its own statement to the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) to recommend a significant increase in pay for all teachers and school leaders.

This follows a joint submission made to the STRB last week by NAHT and other teaching unions to address the decline in teachers’ real pay over the last seven years.

The STRB has been constrained for several years by the public sector pay cap of one per cent from making a full recommendation on the level of pay required to ensure that schools can recruit and retain the high quality professionals they need.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT said: “Anyone working in a school knows how rewarding it is to help young people learn and grow. On a good day, there’s no better profession to be in. School leaders would love to pay new staff an attractive salary and reward existing teachers properly but that’s proving to be impossible.

“Teachers’ pay has fallen by 10.5 per cent in real terms since 2010, and this has hit our sector hard.”

NAHT is calling for the STRB to recommend a pay increase of at least five per cent to move towards restoring pay levels for the profession.

The immense pressure on school budgets resulting from the current funding crisis means that it is imperative that new funding is available to all schools to fund these increases.