Education Letter: Teachers are worth more

Opinions on girls and science, literacy and numeracy tests, Chris Woodhead, the role of research, and falling academic standards

THE PUBLIC Sector Review page of The Independent on 2 February covered the public sector pay increases and I noticed that Judith Judd and Ben Russell's article quoted: "The pay for a newly qualified graduate teacher outside London will rise from pounds 15,012 pa to pounds 15,537 pa from April."

While the figures quoted are correct for Pay Point 2, I feel that it must be pointed out that the DfEE guidelines on pay start at Pay Point 0. Graduate Teachers basic pay line is Point 0. Starting at pounds 13,362 pa at 1998 rates, a 3.5 per cent increase would give a newly qualified teacher only pounds 13,829 pa from April 1999. It is only "Good Honours Graduates" who start on Pay Point 2.

There are some teachers starting in their new careers with an Ordinary Degree or a Lower Class of Honours degree who may start on pounds 13,829 pa and not pounds 15,537 pa in 1999! Using these figures, even our hard pressed nurses with a new rate of pounds 14,400 (your figures) are better off than the new teacher!

Perhaps the Government should tell teachers and nurses that they cannot be paid a salary on the same level as a police constable. A constable started on pounds 12,744 a year in 1993, rising to pounds 16,044 after two years! I understand she or he would start on a salary in excess of pounds 17,000 today, and you do not need a diploma or degree, although many entrants do. It seems to me that priorities for public services have gone off the rails somewhere.

DAVID JONES

Abbeymead, Gloucester