There was little for Scottish education to get excited about in yesterday’s Budget. While there may be a relatively small amount of additional money for local authorities, it is far from clear how much of this will be spent on education - which, as this week’s school census data shows, is crying out for additional funding.
The Scottish government had the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to Scottish education yesterday but failed to do so. Indeed, there was scant mention of education or teachers at all in the Scottish Budget statement for 2023-24.
Deputy first minister John Swinney also failed to deliver any positive news on pay for Scotland’s hard-working teachers. Scotland’s teachers remain in dispute over the series of inadequate, sub-inflationary pay offers that have been made by the Scottish government and local authorities body Cosla this year.
At a time when inflation is at around 11 per cent on the CPI (Consumer Price Index) measure and 14 per cent on the RPI (Retail Price Index) measure, the latest offer to teachers had an average value of 5.07 per cent. This represents a deep real-terms pay cut for teachers, something that the Scottish government did nothing to address yesterday.
On tax changes, while the EIS teaching union is in favour of progressive taxation as a means of funding public services, we have no specific policy on income tax or rates of taxation at each tax band. The majority of Scotland’s teachers are on the main-grade scale, with the level of salary that is taxed at no higher than the intermediate rate of 21 per cent.
Headteachers, deputes, many principal teachers and most associated professionals pay higher-rate tax. A further number of promoted teachers may be impacted by the increase in the higher rate in April 2023. This has already been factored into our negotiating position and communications to members.
Scotland’s teachers continue to be paid less on average than their experienced counterparts in other countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and their pay has fallen by at least 20 per cent in real terms since 2008. A poll in a Scottish newspaper on Wednesday indicated overwhelming public support for the current campaign of strike action in pursuit of an improved pay settlement for all of Scotland’s teachers.
It is deeply regrettable that the Scottish government has not taken account of this today in the Budget statement, but the EIS will continue to fight for fair pay for the teaching profession as a key component of proper funding of education overall.
Andrea Bradley is general secretary of the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union
