Disgraceful pay award for teachers!

The news that the School Teachers Review Body has recommended a below-inflation 1% pay rise for the profession is unsurprising in view of a number of factors (May under fire as teacher pay rise held at 1%, 11/07/17). As Dan Poulter said, the government`s instruction to the so-called "independent" review panel was "to ensure that increases in teaching pay are capped" at that same level. A government which refuses to contemplate taxing wealthy individuals and corporations fairly, to contribute to the needs of society, was never going to consider alternatives, despite the typical posturing by the likes of Johnson and Gove.

   Similarly, this government lacks the economic nous to understand the benefit of paying public servants more when it leads to increased tax revenue and help for the local economy. Lacking, too, is the imagination to spread the pay rise proportionally, so that those on the lowest pay scales get more than 1% and those earning over £50,000 awarded less. It is at the starter level where most recruitment and retention problems lie, but the fact that most schools are either using agencies to recruit from abroad, reducing staff numbers and subjects taught, or using unqualified staff to fill gaps, clearly does not bother this prime minister. 

     This award, correctly described by Layla Moran as "an insult", will inevitably lead to yet more young teachers leaving the profession, and to thousands more rejecting the idea of entering it. The bottom line is that the UK currently has a government which simply does not care about state education.