Northern Ireland school leaders take their fight for fair pay to Downing Street

A delegation from school leaders' union NAHT, including Greenisland Primary School principal and NI group president Liam McGuckin, delivered a letter for the Prime Minister to Number 10 on Wednesday.

The letter, signed by 444 school leaders from across NI, calls on Rishi Sunak to intervene and provide the funding needed to deliver a pay increase for school leaders and teachers.

NAHT members joined teaching unions in strike action in Northern Ireland on Wednesday morning.

Members expressed their anger that while school leaders and teachers elsewhere in the UK have received a pay increase for the current school year, the government says there is no funding for a similar salary uplift here.

This is in addition to a widened disparity in pay across the UK; the teaching profession in NI has now not received any increase in pay for over three years.

NI employing authorities have blamed their inaction on pay on the political stalemate and continued absence of an executive in Stormont.

“While school leaders and teachers in England received a 5 percent pay rise for 2022/23 and 6.5 percent increase for 20023/24 following an industrial dispute, the UK government has failed to replicate this in Northern Ireland under the so-called Barnett formula,” NAHT said.

“On November 2, the Department of Education announced that the ‘rise for teachers in England for 2023/24 was funded from existing Westminster budgets and so there will be no additional money for Stormont to help end the long-running stalemate over teachers' pay’.

“Education unions have received no new pay offer whatsoever, and school leaders’ pay has fallen heavily in real terms over the last decade.”

NAHT has calculated they have faced a 37 percent drop since 2010 based upon average CPI inflation rates between January and July this year.

Liam McGuckin said: “It is beyond disgraceful that professionals dedicated to delivering the best possible education for children in NI face seeing their pay frozen for a third successive year, especially during a period of high inflation.

“We are extremely worried about the damaging effect this is having upon recruitment and retention of school staff, and the impact upon children’s learning.

“In the continued absence of an executive in Stormont, the buck clearly stops with the UK government, which is treating schools and families in NI with contempt.”

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary added: “School leaders do not take industrial action lightly, but they felt they had no other choice but to walk out [on Wednesday].

“Our visit to Downing Street delivered a powerful message that not only do ministers have the power to provide funding to end the current impasse, they have a moral obligation to do so in the interests of fairness for school staff and pupils.”

Before heading to Downing Street, the delegation hosted a briefing for MPs at Westminster titled End the Stalemate in Politics and Education, which was sponsored by Claire Hanna MP.

NAHT’s strike action on Wednesday– the second in its history in Northern Ireland after an earlier walk-out in April – comes after the union also began action short of strike in September, which is continuing.