Chancellor Philip Hammond has not given teachers a pay rise in his Autumn Budget.
In the run-up to the Budget, education unions called on the government to fund a pay rise for teachers after seven years of pay restraint.
However, the Budget made no mention of teachers’ pay.
The only reference to public sector pay was in relation to nurses. Mr Hammond said that if “talks bear fruit” with health unions on pay structure modernisation, he would “protect patient services by providing additional funding for such a settlement”.
Money for maths
Mr Hammond also did not unveil any additional funding for school budgets, though he has made extra money available for maths and computing.
During the education section of his speech, he announced:
- An expansion of the Teaching for Mastery of Maths programme to a further 3,000 schools;
- £40 million to train maths teachers across the country;
- A £600 Maths Premium for schools for every additional pupil who takes A-level or core maths;
- The government will be inviting proposals for new maths schools across England;
- A commitment that every secondary school pupil can study computing by tripling the number of trained computer science teachers to 12,000;
- A promise to work with industry to create a new National Centre for Computing;
- £20 million to support FE colleges to prepare for T-levels;
- £30 million investment in the development of “digital skills distance-learning courses”.
Mr Hammond also announced plans to tackle the fact that “girls are disproportionately less likely to study most Stem subjects at A level, hindering progress into higher education and careers in Stem”.
He said: “To deepen the understanding of the gender disparity in subject choices at age 16, the government will explore how to improve the accessibility and transparency of data on this issue by institution and subject.”
Responding to the Budget, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn read out a statement from a science teacher called Robert who had seen his salary reduced by 30 per cent in real terms.
“I have seen massive cuts to my school, good teachers and support staff leave,” Mr Corbyn read.
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