Minister says teachers' wages in Bristol area are too low
TEACHERS in the Bristol area could be in line for a pay rise after ministers said their wages weren't high enough.
The government said the region – North Somerset in particular – was one of the "hotspots" where teachers are paid much less than they could earn in the private sector.
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Michael Gove
This means they would be likely to be the big winners of a controversial shake-up of the way that public servants are paid.
Ministers want to set public sector pay on a local, rather than national, basis, believing the public sector is "crowding out" private growth in some parts of the UK. They say that inflated public wages make it impossible for businesses to recruit bright candidates.
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This has caused uproar in areas like the North East and Wales, where unions say it would lead to years of pay freezes and a "two-tier" public sector.
But documents submitted to the Treasury by Education Secretary Michael Gove suggest it would be good news for teachers in the Greater Bristol area.
The difference is most pronounced in North Somerset, where teachers earn around 78 per cent of the equivalent private sector job, the report says, while in somewhere like Darlington, in the North East, this figure is 120 per cent.
South Gloucestershire (91 per cent) and Bristol (97 per cent) are also areas where classroom pay is lagging behind. In Bath & North East Somerset the two rates are almost identical.
Mr Gove wants to go further than the 'local pay' switch by handing each school the power to set teachers' pay, believing this would give headteachers more flexibility to raise the profile of under-performing schools.
He said: "The current pay system is rigid, complex and difficult to navigate. It does not support schools to recruit and retain the high quality teachers or leaders they need to address specific shortages and benefit their pupils."
Charlotte Leslie, the Conservative MP for Bristol North West, recently called for more flexibility in setting teachers' pay.
She said: "Broadly I agree with Michael Gove. I think it's right to give the profession more control over pay."
But his proposal is likely to spark a fresh row with teaching unions and raise the prospect of strikes.
Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "National pay scales for teachers give a transparency and ensure much greater fairness and non-discrimination than pay levels determined at school level, and should remain. Education is a nationally delivered service so local pay for a teacher is completely inappropriate."
Comments
by artglad
Monday, May 28 2012, 2:58AM
“Why would anyone be so bitter to think that any working person is overpaid ,when the filthy rich continue to exploit them?”
by John_Name
Thursday, May 24 2012, 4:19PM
“I'm a tory, and my kids went to state schools and have done very well indeed.”
by John_Name
Thursday, May 24 2012, 3:35PM
“Bristol University Arts Faculty is currently offering exam invigilators - usually adults with postgraduate degrees - £6ph or thereabouts.”
by torysarecool
Thursday, May 24 2012, 8:58AM
“@BadDad,
I admire your principles and patience, it should be that way. However, as the other chap said, I don't want to compromise my own children's education.
FYI, I've never been a teacher.”
by Batdad
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 11:05PM
“@bristoldj
It seems self-evident to me that all children should get an excellent education not just those whose parents can afford it - and I'm not sterotyping them, I know lots of parents who send their children to private schools are scraping and saving to be able to do so out of love for their children. But I want my children to succeed in the state system, because unlike those cynical teenagers in Downing Street I really believe that 'we're all in this together' actually means something. That doesn't make me a good person or a bad person it's just my view, I want to contribute to society by supporting the state system, and I want to raise children who will view themselves as part of a community and then live their lives trying to improve it.
That's why I'm so critical of CYPS, Annie 'Honorarium' Hudson is providing the best possible argument for private education. Those morons are destroying the lives of thousands of children every day by tolerating failure in Bristol schools. It can't be said often enough, FAILURE IS NORMAL IN BRISTOL SCHOOLS. CYPS exists to hide this from the tax payers. I'll support any candidate for mayor who can present real proposals for reforming CYPS. Mine would be this - scrap it. P45 for Hudson and her grim pack of ex-failed teachers turned bureaucrats on fat salaries in comfortable offices.
I'd vote for @torysarecool if he stood on a 'scrap CYPS' platform.”
by Phurr
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 9:33PM
“Last week Gollum, sorry, Gove was saying we should pay good teachers more, now that is scraped and teachers' pay should be decided by market forces. So does that a good teacher in a less expensive area will be paid less than a bad one in a more expensive area?
No wonder all the Civil Servants are up in arms, more incohertent non-sense.
@Tory Boy you seem very bitter, were you a poor teacher, did thoseevil working class oiks bully you? It would explain the bile.
Pip, pip.”
by BristolDJ
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 7:53PM
“@batdad
May I ask what is wrong with private schools then? and why you choose to send your kids to a state school instead of a private school? As if any sane parent would choose that if they had the means to.... I'm not knocking state schools at all, but to suggest there is something wrong with private school education is lunacy. It is far superior in nearly every way than the majority of state schools. You have to REALLY luck out to get a state school that is comparable to a fees paying school!”
by Batdad
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 3:54PM
“"It's reassuring to know that my kids will likely be your children's bosses"
Who said the Nasty Party is dead? Any other Bristol Tories (or Lib Dems - it's the same thing nowadays) like to endorse attitudes like these?”
by torysarecool
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 11:11AM
“@Batdad, does it feel good to crush your children's future for your own petty ideologies?
It's reassuring to know that my kids will likely be your children's bosses.”
by Batdad
Wednesday, May 23 2012, 10:57AM
“@brisguide
Looks like the blue lunatic fringe are still alive and frothing. Nice to be reminded why I haven't voted Conservative for twenty years. Bristol's tories must be so proud of you - views like yours are the reason you haven't won an election since 1992 and people like me wouldn't be seen dead voting for you anymore. Keep it up!
@toriesarecruel -
I send my kids to a state school for exactly the same reason you send yours to a private school.”