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| Volume 55 Number 5, March 7, 2025 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
(NEU Press Release, March 1, 2025)
The National Education Union (NEU) has today (Saturday) launched a preliminary electronic ballot on the need for a fully funded pay award that takes steps to address the crisis in recruitment and retention. Around 284,000 teacher members working in maintained schools across England will be consulted over the government's recommendation to the School Teachers' Review Body of an unfunded pay rise of 2.8 per cent for teachers in 2025/26.
A 2.8 per cent increase is likely to be below inflation and would do nothing to repair the damage to the competitive position of teacher pay against other graduate professions. Teachers face another pay cut. The already critical recruitment and retention problems damaging our education service will get even worse.
The pay recommendation is unfunded. The government has proposed that schools can pay for it by making 'efficiencies' elsewhere in their budget. The reality, as every teacher knows, is that schools have endured 14 years of school cuts under the Conservatives. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has not given schools what they need. Research shows that 76 per cent of primaries and 94 per cent of secondaries will be forced to make cuts, not only to balance the books but to meet this pay award.
The preliminary electronic ballot opens on 1 March and closes on 11 April. It will ask teachers and leaders in state-funded schools in England the following two questions:
The NEU's national executive recommends REJECT on the first question and YES on the second.
Commenting on the launch of the indicative ballot, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"We all know that an unfunded 2.8 per cent pay award is unacceptable. It will deepen the chronic recruitment and retention crisis in our schools, and means more cuts for already struggling schools. Pay has fallen by around a fifth against inflation since 2010, pushing education into the worst crisis in decades. More schools are in deficit now than at any point since 2010. Class sizes are the largest on record.
"Our members do not want to strike but ignoring the profession and backing educators into a corner means we will be left with no choice. The government was elected in the hope it would value education, but a 2.8 per cent pay award without funding does the opposite. Like the Conservatives before them, they are forcing schools to make more cuts.
"It is short-sighted, it is wrong, and teachers will not stand for it. There is time yet for Rachel Reeves and her colleagues to think again and deliver for teachers, children, and our schools."