Whenever there is an article about schools in the U.K lately, it seems to be about funding. The DfE have given a grant of £508 million to schools throughout the country (£187 million this year) to give teachers a pay rise however due to reductions in funding, 12% of schools have told their teachers that if pay rises are given, these teachers could lose their jobs with a further 45% of schools yet to inform their teachers if they will be given anything.
According to NASUWT, some teachers were told they would be given a partial pay rise, others told that they would have a full pay rise but only backdated until January, not the start of the academic year and nearly all newly qualified teachers (1 in 10) would not get a penny more.
When money is given in any situation, it must clearly state what this money should be used for and in however many quantities; this was not done with this grant. The general secretary, Chris Keates, has condemned the government for not ‘ringfencing’ the money to ensure that it is only used for teacher’s pay increase on their main pay scale.
School Funding Surplus
Most recently, according to the NASUWT general secretary, the union has been gathering DfE information related to budgets of every school in the country; this data shows that more than 80% of schools had a budget surplus which once added up across the country, came to just shy of £4 billion.
The information gathered by NASUWT shows that perhaps schools are given the right amount of money however schools need to disclose these amounts to their staff. At this point in time, one-fifth of teachers are considering leaving their teaching jobs and the profession altogether because of pay; headteachers need to consider this otherwise they will risk losing their staff very soon.
