Teachers are the envy of the country during the summer break, snoozing and reading for six weeks. But spare them a thought: when they finished term last month they had no idea what salary they would return to in September. The cowardly government waited for schools to break up before announcing it would ignore the independent review body on teacher pay and not provide the recommended pay increase after all.
This shows remarkable chutzpah. Almost 30 years ago, when the government wrestled teacher pay negotiations away from the unions, it did so on the basis that an independent board would carefully consider the evidence each year before decreeing a fair pay rise. It was always possible for the education secretary to ignore what someone smarter, who had spent more time looking at the evidence, had recommended. But why would you, and why now, given there is a serious teacher shortage?
This year, a third of new teachers left the classroom within five years – the highest level since records began. Thousands flocked to work in international schools. Teacher training places are going spare for the sixth year in a row.
Despite all this, the education secretary, Damian Hinds, told parliament on its last day that only teachers in their first six years on the job would get the recommended 3.5% pay award. More experienced staff would get 2% and headteachers only 1.5%. To add an extra sting, schools, already starved of cash, won’t receive full funding to cover the increase. So, Mr Jones the maths teacher may be able to afford his rent for another year, but his pupils will be sharing one calculator between three to pay for it.
Senior teachers howled at the injustice, but it’s quite possible differential increases will continue in future. Hinds has presumably noted that older teachers, who are more likely to have no mortgage and more generous pensions, might be tempted into earlier retirement or part-time work if given higher salaries, which would exacerbate the teacher shortage. On the other hand, the salaries of new teacher are falling behind. Prison guards and police officers now start on more.
Meanwhile, rocketing house prices are no longer confined to the capital, meaning regional pay increases may be needed. A recent survey of more than 2,000 teachers found mortgage and rent costs in the south-east, south-west and East Anglia are closing in on London. Yet teacher salaries are the same in Oxford, where the average house price is £523,000, as in Oldham, where it is a quarter of the price.
Transport costs are also rising, with a third of teachers reporting a monthly spend of more than £200. Londoners had the lowest costs, as they get heavily subsidised travel. In that light, it’s hard to justify teachers in the capital continuing to get more cash when rises in fuel tax and car insurance are hitting rural staff much harder.
Wages aren’t the only solution to living costs, though. If the government could pull its head out of its Brexit-shaped hole, it might remember it is also in charge of things such as housing and transport. And it could use them.
For example, London is building 16,000 homes with rents pegged to income. Bully for London (again) but why not extend this to key workers across the country? Or, the next time the transport secretary runs a train franchise, why not require companies to give free passes to teachers? If the government thinks it can pull off mammoth Brexit trade deals, then making provincial train companies carry a few teachers for free should be easy.
Ultimately, if the Conservatives really don’t have the imagination to find more money for wages, then more imagination is needed to reduce living costs. Otherwise, the teacher supply cupboard is going to be bare, and even the keenest holiday worshipper won’t be tempted to join the profession.