Teachers consider 4% pay increase offer from management

Teachers are considering an offer of a 4% pay increase.

The formal offer from management for the 2025/26 academic year includes a 4% consolidated increase to all teacher salary scale points.

It also includes a 4% rise to all allowances effective from September 1 2025.

The offer was described by management as one that “reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring fair and competitive remuneration for teachers in Northern Ireland”.

“We very much value the vital role of teachers and believe this pay award represents the best that can be achieved against the backdrop of increasing financial pressures,” they added.

The Northern Ireland Teachers Council (NITC), which represents the five main teacher unions, said teachers had hoped for more but believe this offer is the maximum that is currently possible.

It comes after Education Minister Paul Givan was given approval by the Stormont Executive to overspend his budget last month to allow the pay negotiations to take place.

His department is facing a projected deficit of around £267 million for this financial year.

The NITC welcomed the pay offer in a statement on Tuesday.

“While teachers will have hoped for more, the NITC believe that this offer is the maximum possible in the current financial circumstances,” a spokesperson said.

“This offer will now be taken to our member unions for consultation. Each union will carefully consider the details and implications of the proposal on behalf of the teachers that they represent.

“Once each union has received a view on the offer, the NITC will formally respond to management side.

“Each union will now communicate with their members on how they will consult on the offer.”

The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) said it is recommending its members accept the offer.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The union commends the negotiating team for delivering this offer from management side in what are very difficult circumstances for the Northern Ireland Executive.

“This offer matches the 4% award made to teachers in England for the 2025/26 academic year and keeps teachers’ salaries broadly in line between Northern Ireland and England. Very importantly there are no strings attached to this offer.”

Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official for Northern Ireland, added: “We welcome this pay offer, which is a significant and hard-won achievement which was only made possible by Executive agreement after a Ministerial Direction.

“On the basis that there is no prospect of additional funding, the union will be recommending that members accept this offer.

“Crucially, this offer is not conditional. It allows us to separate the vital issue of pay from our ongoing campaign to tackle excessive teacher workload, for which the Independent Panel’s report now provides a concrete basis for resolution. The minister must now act decisively on those recommendations.”

Marty Lavery, chairperson of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) northern committee, said the above-inflation offer “represents another step towards pay restoration which INTO has been calling for over the past decade”.

“INTO will now consult with our members before formally responding to this offer,” he said.

Mr Givan said he believed the proposed 4% increase was a “fair” offer.

“It’s in line with the increase that took place in England, it would keep the terms and conditions that teachers are on in Northern Ireland broadly in line with their counterparts across the water,” he told the Press Association.

“It also acknowledges the value that we place in our teaching profession, and will ensure that, subject to it being accepted, and I’m confident that it will be, that we have good industrial relations continuing within our education system.”