UK rewards its teachers with the biggest pay rise in fifteen years

THE UK government on Tuesday (21) announced a 3.1 per cent  increase in the overall pay bill of teachers, the largest pay increase in 15 years.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has accepted all the recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body to raise the starting salary for new teachers by 5.5 per cent and increase the upper and lower boundaries of the pay ranges for all other teachers by 2.75 per cent.

The pay increase is equivalent to £1,250 on average for classroom teachers and £1,970 on average for headteachers. The minimum starting salary for a qualified teacher in 2020-21 will rise to £25,714 outside of London and to £32,157 in inner London.

According to an official statement, this is the first step to delivering the government’s commitment to increase teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000 by 2022-23.

“We want to make teaching attractive to the most talented candidates by recognising the outstanding contribution teachers make to our society. This is why we are introducing the biggest pay rise the profession has seen since 2005, with above-inflation rises to the pay ranges for every single teacher in the country, ahead of introducing a £30,000 starting salary by 2022," said Gavin Williamson.

“Reforms to teacher training, early career support and teachers’ pay are key to the government’s plans to improve school standards.”

The Review Body also recommended the introduction of advisory pay points on the main and upper pay range to support schools to adopt a pay structure which best supports recruitment and retention.

The government recently announced a hike in core schools funding by £2.6 billion in 2020-21, £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.

Funding to cover past increases to teacher pay and pensions, currently worth £2 billion, will also be included in the national funding formula from 2021 rather than paid separately, the statement said.

The education secretary on Monday (20) said that next year, mainstream school funding will increase by four per cent overall.