National Education Union (NEU) teachers have voted overwhelmingly to accept this year’s teacher pay award of 5.5 per cent.
In a snap poll of serving teacher members in England’s state schools run between September 21 and 30, 95 per cent voted in favour of accepting the offer on a turnout of 41 per cent.
The new government announced in July that it was accepting the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body in full, and that schools would receive £1.2 billion to fund the increase.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “Our members should be proud of what they have achieved through a hard-fought campaign.
“They have accepted this year’s pay deal, but the government should be in no doubt that we see it as just a first step in the major pay correction needed.”
But he warned that “without a major pay correction to restore the competitiveness of teacher pay, the desire to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis promised by today’s government remit letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body will come up short”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned in July that teacher pay is about 6 per cent lower in real-terms than in 2010. It was even lower than that before the unions won a 6.5 per cent pay rise last year.
“The pay increases are in the interests of pupils and parents too,” said Kebede.
“Teacher shortages and high class-sizes damage education. Support staff, further education and sixth form college teachers also need solutions to long-standing problems in pay.”
He called on the government to “make a commitment to repairing the damage done to teacher pay under the Conservatives”.
“This must be done in negotiations with the teacher unions. Reversing pay cuts, alongside tackling sky-high workload, is essential to ensuring that we properly value, recruit and retain teachers.”
