NUT slams new top scale for teachers

18 Mar 04
A bitter row has broken out between teaching unions over Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to introduce a new pay scale for 'excellent' teachers.

19 March 2004

A bitter row has broken out between teaching unions over Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to introduce a new pay scale for 'excellent' teachers.

The National Union of Teachers said the announcement would 'dismay' the profession. It argued that few teachers would now be able to progress beyond £31,602 a year without proving their excellence. This would involve passing a rigorous performance review based largely on pupil performance and studying a further course.

Clarke has agreed to recommendations from the School Teachers' Review Body to abolish the top two points of the upper pay scale. To go beyond this, teachers would have to move into a separate 'excellent' category based on classroom results and further study. This would 'provide certainty for schools and make a real difference to classroom teachers', he said.

Progress on the main scale would also be more closely tied to performance from September 2005.

The package arises from a submission endorsed by the government and most unions, but not the National Union of Teachers.

NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said: 'The extension of performance-related pay based on pupil progress to the main scale will further demoralise and demotivate teachers. The decisions of the review body, most of which result from collaboration between the government and the other teachers' organisations, will dismay the profession.'

But other unions generally welcomed the package. Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Union of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, said that without the submission the review body would have 'followed its inclination towards ranking and grading of teachers and restricted access to higher salaries'.

The National Association of Head Teachers said 'good and excellent teachers have absolutely nothing to fear' from the new pay structure.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said she was 'gratified' that progression on the upper pay scale had been resolved without any quota or new criteria governing progression.

Clarke also agreed to introduce the status of 'chartered London teacher' with a bonus for those in challenging schools in the capital, and to issue proposals on local variations to pay by September.

PFmar2004

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