Today’s Education in the Media blog looks at a joint letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor from the teaching unions on the issue of school funding and teacher pay.
Joint letter
On Tuesday, 2 October, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) and National Education Union (NEU) general secretaries wrote a joint letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor on the issue of school funding and teacher pay.
The Mirror published the letter exclusively in today’s paper and it was the focus of the Mirror’s leader column.
We are putting record levels of funding into schools for pupils aged up to 16, with funding rising to £43.5bn for core schools and high needs funding by 2020.
In July, we announced a 3.5% pay rise for classroom teachers – backed by £508 million of government funding over this year and next.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
There is more money going into schools than ever before, rising to a record £43.5 billion by 2020 – 50% more in real terms per pupil than in 2000.
Every school attracts more funding per pupil through the National Funding Formula and high needs funding will rise to over £6 billion next year too. On top of this, the 3.5% pay rise we announced in July for classroom teachers is being backed by £508 million of government funding over this year and next.
We know that we are asking schools to do more, which is why we are helping them to reduce the £10 billion spent each year on non-staffing costs, providing government-backed deals for things like printers and energy suppliers that are helping to save millions of pounds.
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