Dear colleague

It’s a New Year. It’s a new government. But our schools are still burdened with the same old problems.

Lack of funding, not enough teachers coming into the profession and too many leaving.

Add into the mix escalating workload pressures and some of the UK’s longest working hours, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

To make matters worse, before Christmas the government announced it has recommended an unfunded, 2.8 per cent pay rise for teachers in September.

We think this isn’t good enough – for lots of reasons.

It doesn’t correct the real terms loss in pay teachers have suffered since 2010.

It doesn’t address the rising cost of living.

It fails to reflect the dedication of educators who are working harder than ever in increasingly challenging circumstances.

And, crucially, it won’t bring more teachers into our schools or encourage existing ones to stay.

Teachers’ pay has fallen relative to other professionals and compared with other public sector workers. As a result, schools have the worst recruitment and retention crisis for twenty years. Everyone in education agrees that we need a teacher pay correction to deal with it.

But for teachers, this isn’t just about a pay rise.

It’s about funding.

Without guaranteed funding for the rise, schools and colleges will be left to make impossible choices – cut staff, cut resources, or both.

Schools, our children and education just can’t afford any more cuts.

More schools are in deficit now than at any point since at least 2010.

Just 3 per cent of primary schools and 6 per cent of secondaries say they are financially secure.

We have the highest primary class sizes in Europe and the highest secondary class sizes on record. More than a million pupils are taught in classes of over 30.

That’s why the National Education Union (NEU) executive has taken the really difficult decision to hold a preliminary electronic ballot, asking members if they would be prepared to strike over pay and funding.

There is deep frustration among educators across the country over the government’s failure to fund a fair pay rise for all.

Most are prepared to give Labour a chance to repair the damage inflicted on our schools by the previous Tory government over 14 years.

But we all know our schools are at breaking point. And if this government refuses to give the funding needed to pay for this rise, the vast majority of schools will need to make further cuts to education provision to pay for it.

We are balloting to send a clear message to the government.

This is your opportunity to do the right thing – to fund a fair, significantly above-inflation pay rise for all educators.

To kickstart our economy and bring real change to the country, it’s in the interests of a Labour government to invest in education. To make sure our schools have the funding they need to give young people the best possible start in life.

This is about valuing education and those who deliver it.

Thousands of educators voted for this government and we want and need Labour to do better. To keep to its promises. To invest in education, to recruit the 6,500 teachers it pledged, so it can achieve the economic growth that everyone wants to see.

We will work with this government where we can and press it where we must. Ministers have continued to say there is no funding for a significant rise – that to afford any pay rises schools must make ‘efficiencies’ – so we have been left with no choice but to ballot members on whether they will take action to fund fair pay and save our schools.

Please vote in our indicative ballot before it closes on Friday 11 April, so that you, our members, determine the next steps we take.

We are prepared to do what is necessary to ensure fairness for our pupils and secure the future of our schools. Austerity will be ended by deeds not words and this is a chance for this government to do the right thing. To ensure our schools are funded, our students supported, and our educators valued.

Now it’s up to them.

In solidarity,