Northern Ireland teacher pay rise 'unaffordable' given budget cuts

Head teachers protested outside the Department of Education headquarters on Friday at not having had a pay rise in three years

It is "simply unaffordable" to give teachers a pay rise within the current education budget, the Department of Education (DE) has said.

It said a 5% pay increase for teachers would cost about £62m.

The department's budget has been cut and it said it is already £300m short of what it needs this year.

Unlike their counterparts in other parts of the UK, teachers in Northern Ireland have not had a pay rise for nearly three years.

A department spokesperson also claimed that the teaching trade unions had asked for a rise of about 30% to cover three years, which would add £370m to the annual salary bill.

The department's statement came after about 70 head teachers protested at Department of Education headquarters in Bangor on Friday.

They handed in significant information about their schools and pupil numbers manually as part of ongoing industrial action instead of submitting it electronically, as they would in other years.

The "school census" information is used by the department to calculate the amount of money each school gets to run every year.

'Frustrating and upsetting'

In a statement, a spokesperson for the department said it respected the rights of the unions to engage in industrial action.

However, the spokesperson said that "schools which do not submit the full required census data electronically run a risk that they may not receive their correct and fair share of the education budget".

The spokesperson also said a pay offer could only be made if it was "affordable within the allocated budget".

"The department acknowledges the pay concerns of the teachers' unions," they said.

Graham Gault, of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said the principals did not want "to be taking actions like this".

"It's frustrating and very upsetting," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme.

"The teaching profession in Northern Ireland has had no upgrade in remuneration and pay for three years."

"We've watched the teaching profession anywhere else on these islands get pay award after pay award after pay award approaching what could be in line with inflation."

What have Northern Ireland teachers asked for?

Teachers in England, for instance, accepted a pay rise of 6.5% for 2023-24 in July.

The teaching unions in Northern Ireland had previously asked for a "cost of living" pay increase of 6% for 2021-22 and a rise of inflation plus 2% for 2022-23.

Inflation was running at around 10% for some of 2022-23 driven by rises in the cost of everyday goods and energy.

• Why is UK inflation so high?

The unions have not yet made public what pay settlement they are seeking for 2023-24.

But the Stormont budget for education was cut by about £70m or 2.5% in 2023-24 - though the real-terms reduction is larger.

That has led to a number of cuts to schemes and services to save money.

• What do radical cuts mean for NI education?

The department's statement continued: "We are working within the reduced allocation that education has received from the secretary of state, while trying to continue to provide essential services to the education system here."

"The department has been unable to offer teachers a pay award for the past three years as it is simply unaffordable within the existing budget settlement.

"Discussions will continue between the department, other management side colleagues and the teachers' unions in an attempt to resolve this pay dispute."

There are about 20,000 teachers employed in Northern Ireland.

Thousands of members of the Unison and Nipsa trade unions in Northern Ireland who work in schools in non-teaching roles recently voted for industrial action over pay.