Teachers have warned of more industrial strife as they claim academisation of schools will push down pay and make it harder to attract young people into the profession.
George Osborne will announce a radical shakeup of the education system in Wednesday’s budget, setting out plans to turn every school into an academy by 2022. The move will free schools from a national pay scale that sets a minimum income for teachers of £22,244.
Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said dismantling pay scales would cause “complete chaos”.
He said: “There could be individual negotiations with up to 20,000 schools and that is bound to lead to more disputes over pay. There is already a teacher shortage and the fact that you can’t advertise pay scales or say what you’ll be earning in four years will put young people off.”
Asked whether schools might increase pay, he said: “Of course it is not going to mean teachers are paid more because funding will be standing still in cash terms.”
Courtney said many academies were sticking to pay scales at the moment, but some free schools were offering salaries below the minimum. Teachers have reported problems with mortgages as it was not clear how much they might be paid in the future.
The budget will also include a raft of fresh austerity measures in the face of a weakening global economy. The chancellor has signalled that he will make spending cuts of £4bn as he battles to hit his self-imposed target of delivering a surplus on the public sector finances by the end of this parliament.
He is expected to concede that he will fail to meet his aim of cutting the UK’s debt-to-GDP ratio this year. Osborne will blame the fragile state of the global economy, including the eurozone, where interest rates were slashed to zero last week, for the worse-than-expected state of the public finances.
He will promise to set aside new funds for pet projects, including backing transport infrastructure schemes such as HS3 and Europe’s longest underground road tunnel, and developing technologies including driverless cars.
The plans for schools will change the Victorian tradition of the school day finishing at 3.30pm. Secondary schools will be able to bid for an additional five hours a week.
David Cameron said in his Tory conference speech last autumn that he aimed to place education into the hands of headteachers and teachers rather than bureaucrats.
Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, who has been touted as a potential rival to Osborne for the Conservative leadership when Cameron steps down, is expected to give more details of the plan for the education shakeup when she opens the House of Commons debate on the budget on Thursday. She will appear on the BBC’s Question Time on Thursday evening.
