‘Staggering’ £10,000 disparity in the starting salary of fully qualified teachers in Northern Ireland and Scotland

Jacquie White, general secretary of the teaching union, said teachers here are fighting for their professional lives.

She said: “A third of young teachers are quitting the profession after a few years so schools are finding it increasingly difficult to fill even core subject teaching jobs, often having to re-advertise or alter criteria.

“One of the main reasons for this brain drain is the staggering £10,000 disparity in the starting salary of fully qualified teachers here and, for instance, in Scotland.

“Whereas here a newly qualified teacher starts on £24,137, there they’ll start on £32,217 from January 2024.

“Our last pay uplift was in September 2020, whereas our Scottish colleagues now have an agreement in place worth a salary increase in excess of inflation between January 2022 and January 2024.

“Is it any wonder then that we are haemorrhaging our best hope for the future of the profession and for Northern Ireland? Young people are taking the education gained here to use elsewhere so there’s no payback for Northern Ireland – and who could blame them?”

The conference also heard of fears for future of rural communities if schools close.

Louise Creelman, president of the Ulster Teachers’ Union, said: “While in England it’s all about levelling up it seems that here our rural communities are under increasing threat in so many areas, from health to education.

“Are closing GP surgeries especially in the west now to be matched by closing schools leaving rural communities with such rich traditions struggling for their very survival, let alone a future?

“If schools are closed or amalgamated, children in rural areas will have to be transported to new schools yet school transport too is currently in financial crisis. Where does that leave the thousands of rural families affected?

“In such rural areas the parental involvement is often much higher than in more urban settings and to take that school away would potentially sound the death knell for these historic and culturally rich areas.”