Isle of Man schools could close two days early at Christmas

The ballot of NAHT members over the new offer will close on 3 May

Manx schools could close two days early this Christmas as part of a revised offer to teachers in an ongoing dispute over pay, workloads and conditions.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said the education department's proposal recognised teachers' "commitment during Covid".

The union is balloting its members over the new offer, which would also see supervisors employed to cover absences.

But the new deal would not increase the previously offered 2% basic pay rise.

That aspect of the new proposal led the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers to reject the deal outright, and its members are due to start industrial action short of striking on Wednesday.

An NAHT spokesman said, under the new offer, the department would close schools on 21 December, two days earlier than originally planned, to extend the holiday period for teachers "in acknowledgement and recognition of the commitment and support during this unprecedented 12 months".

Twenty cover supervisors would be appointed across the Department of Education, Sport and Culture, with a view to the first being in post by the start of the new school year in September.

And the 2% rise on offer would be backdated to September 2021, pensionable, and applied to allowances.

NAHT national secretary Rob Kelsall said the union was "pleased" the department had made the revised offer and the measures were "all steps in the right direction".

About 55% of the union's members rejected the previous offer in January, and the ballot over the revised deal will close on 3 May.