One in four schools will be unable to afford this year’s teacher pay award, a teaching union has warned.
Teachers were given a 3.5 per cent pay rise, Vlog reported at the start of July, but schools were told they would need to fund the first 1 per cent of the award.
The NASUWT teaching union estimates that 50 per cent of maintained schools and 18 per cent of academies cannot afford the 1 per cent they have been told to absorb.
And Vlog previously revealed that the total amount to be met from existing school budgets is closer to 1.8 per cent - or half the total pay award.
The union’s warning comes as it launches a campaign calling for education spending to rise to at least 6 per cent of GDP.
Matt Wrack, NASUWT general secretary, said schools face a “cumulative effect” of having to fund pay rises from stretched budgets and the knock-on effect of cuts to staff and increased teacher workload.
Asked whether the union could ballot for industrial action over funding, Mr Wrack said it did not want to “get ahead of ourselves”, but added: “We would not rule out any option that our members may subsequently choose.”
Cuts to school support staff
In an NASUWT survey of 1,900 teachers, 70 per cent said their school did not receive enough funding to provide quality teaching and learning. This rose to 78 per cent among primary respondents to the poll last month.
Two-thirds of respondents said their school had cut in-class support from teaching assistants, and the same proportion reported staff leaving without being replaced.
And half said funding pressures had led to “significant or unsustainable” increases in their workload.
The union has also warned the government against expecting schools to deliver its landmark reforms of special educational needs and disabilities support without additional resources.
Mr Wrack said the government could not expect schools to increase inclusion “while you are at the very same time cutting the support staff who are needed to support those children in classrooms”.
Call for rise in education spending
The NASUWT has called on the government to raise education spending to at least 6 per cent of GDP; it is currently at around 4.1 per cent.
Mr Wrack acknowledged that achieving this increase would be a “huge challenge”, but argued that education should be protected in the same way as other areas of public spending, such as defence.
State pensions and welfare represent around 13 per cent of GDP, followed by health at 8 per cent. Defence spending is around 2 per cent, but the government plans to raise it by 1 per cent.
Mr Wrack said he hoped the union’s campaign would place pressure on the new government ahead of next month’s Autumn Budget.
The change in prime minister in July had created a more positive political mood, he said, but he warned that teachers would expect this to translate into changes in schools.
“The jury’s out on what they will actually do,” Mr Wrack said. “I don’t think people’s patience will last forever.”
