Commenting on the Department for Education’s submitted evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The proposed unfunded 2.8% pay increase for September 2025 for teachers in England set out in the Government’s evidence to the STRB falls well short of the urgent action needed.
“School cuts have left education on the brink, with a deep and severe recruitment and retention crisis that is causing wholescale damage to education provision.
"We have got the highest primary class sizes in Europe. We have the highest secondary class sizes on record. We have a million pupils taught in classes of more than 30. There are no 'efficiencies' that can be made without further damaging education. Starmer will be the only Labour Prime Minister other than James Callaghan to tell schools to make cuts.
“When the Secretary of State took office, she rightly committed to securing the best life chances for every child and to recruiting 6,500 new teachers. However, neither objective can be achieved without properly investing in our education service and in the teachers who deliver it.
“Teacher pay has been cut by over a fifth in real terms since 2010, hitting teacher living standards and damaging the competitive position of teaching against other graduate professions.
“Along with sky-high workload, the pay cuts have resulted in a devastating recruitment and retention crisis. Teacher shortages across the school system hit pupils and parents too.
“A 2.8% increase is likely to be below inflation and behind wage increases in the wider economy This will only deepen the crisis in education.
“We need an above-inflation increase as part of a series of urgent steps to achieve the major pay correction needed to restore the pay lost and tackle teacher shortages.
“Instead of continuing with failed Conservative austerity, the Government must fully fund the pay increases that are desperately needed to value, recruit and retain teachers and school leaders.
“NEU members fought to win the pay increases of 2023 and 2024. We are putting the Government on notice. Our members care deeply about education and feel the depth of the crisis. This won’t do.”