College staff deserve a pay rise along with their peers. Widening the gap with schools would be a serious mistake
Teachers at sixth-form colleges in England should not be missing out on the 5.5% pay rise awarded to their colleagues across the state school sector. That up to 4,000 of them will do so, unless the government agrees to fund a backdated increase, is due to the messy patchwork of 16-18 education – with some sixth forms operating as academies and others colleges. It is deeply dismaying that ministers are disregarding the brazen injustice of a rise offered to some teachers but not all.
Unless they change course and increase the offer made in December, when they were threatened with a judicial review, the result will be more strikes by the National Education Union (NEU) – and more missed learning for teenagers. The situation is made even more jarring by the emphasis in the children’s wellbeing bill on ensuring a level playing field between schools in England – with academies obliged to follow the national curriculum and pay scales from which they have so far been exempted. There is no good reason why sixth-form colleges should be left out of this wider levelling-up project, with their staff denied the raise granted to other teachers.
Continue reading...
