Teachers given 2.45pc pay rise in three-year deal

(Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

The Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced a 2.45-per-cent pay rise for teachers this year amid threats of industrial action from unions.

Mr Balls said teachers in England and Wales would receive 2.3-per-cent rises in 2009 and 2010 under the three-year deal.

The figures were lower than the previous pay award for teachers of 2.5 per cent but higher than some had expected.

The salary rises were also above the Government's preferred measure of inflation, the consumer prices index, which is running at 2.1 per cent.

Mr Balls said the award was both "fair and affordable".

"Teachers are the backbone of our education system," he said.

"We know that the most important factor in education, alongside the input of parents, is the quality of teachers.

"I believe we have a world-class workforce that is improving all the time.

"Today's pay award will enable teachers and schools to plan ahead with a greater degree of security and certainty and at the same time will help deliver stability for the taxpayer and the wider economy.

"I believe this pay award, the first of the Government's three-year, forward-looking, public sector pay awards, is fair for teachers and affordable for schools.

"It builds on the record real terms pay increases that teachers have been awarded during the last 10 years."