After a decade of generous pay rises, teachers found the three-year pay deal proposed on January 15th by Ed Balls, the schools secretary, distinctly underwhelming. On offer is 2.45% extra in 2008-09 and 2.3% in each of the following two years. This is far short of the 4% teaching unions had said they needed to keep pace with retail-price inflation-"in effect a pay cut", growled Steve Sinnott, who leads the National Union of Teachers. His executive will be meeting to discuss the offer next week and he expects a "robust response".
展开▼
