Teachers in England have voted to end strike action and accept the government’s offer of a 6.5% pay rise, which is partly supported by new government funding. More than 80% of teachers who voted in three unions and 77% in the other accepted the pay deal.
In a joint statement with the prime minister, teachers’ union leaders stated that the pay offer “recognises the vital role that teachers play in our country, and ensures that teaching will continue to be an attractive profession”.
However, in the face of the increased cost of living – as well as challenging working conditions for teachers – it is unclear whether this agreement will be enough to stem the recruitment crisis in English schools.
Crunching the numbers
The prime minister and union leaders’ statement described the pay award as “properly funded”. The government has committed to funding the pay rise above 3.5%, with the rest of the rise coming from schools’ existing budgets.
However, with inflation still running well above the 6.5% rate of the rise, some teachers may feel that the government could have gone further. “They could and should have offered more,” Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said. The union’s leaders suggested they would be campaigning for a further increase in pay in next year’s pay round.
It is unclear whether the agreed pay rise will be sufficient to stem the tide of teachers quitting. Nearly 44,000 teachers throughout England left in 2022. Amid the rising cost of living, research suggests it would take more than a 10% pay rise to significantly affect whether teachers choose to leave the profession.
Workload issues
What’s more, while pay was the most significant factor in the dispute, working conditions also played a role in teachers’ decision to strike. Stress levels and a high workload continue to dog the profession. Recently, a House of Commons committee report suggested that the Department for Education (DfE) does not fully appreciate the pressures primary and secondary schools face as they attempt to help pupils catch up their learning after the pandemic.
The government has stated that it is establishing a workload-reduction taskforce to help schools, and that its ambition is to reduce teacher workload by five hours a week. But only 18.4% of teachers responding to the NASUWT union’s survey felt the government’s proposals on workload were sufficient.
High workload and stress are significant reasons why people might choose to leave the teaching profession – or not join it in the first place. The number of teachers leaving in 2022 was up 7,800 on 2021. And while the number of recruits increased too, the overall number of vacancies was still up year on year.
Teacher training is another issue which may pose problems for recruitment. Institutions that offer initial teacher training must now go through an accreditation process, which is carried out by the DfE.
In 2022, 179 course providers were successful in the accreditation process. This is a significant fall from the 240 providers who were offering initial teacher training previously. Institutions that did not receive accreditation, including Durham University, appealed the decision but were not successful. Some providers that had received good Ofsted reports – such as the University of Greenwich – also did not gain accreditation.
Teacher training has a significant task ahead: the DfE has raised its target for initial teacher trainees for secondary schools in the 2023-24 academic year by 26% on the previous year. But the accreditation process for teacher education providers could jeopardise the supply of new teachers.
The end of strike action will come as a relief to many teachers, as well as to children, young people and their families. However, this pay settlement seems unlikely to address the fundamental issues behind the teacher shortage that continues to plague the profession.