Teachers to be offered three year pay deal

The Government will today offer 400,000 teachers in England and Wales the prospect of a three-year pay deal to try to head off any repeat of this year's school funding fiasco.

Schools minister Stephen Twigg will tell head teachers that the deal will offer their schools more "stability and predictability'' as they plan their budgets. Ministers are acutely aware that a three-year deal will not solve this summer's dilemma – with schools facing the prospect of putting pupils on a four-day week because of budget shortfalls of up to £750,000 per school.

However, they are convinced it will rescue Tony Blair's flagship teaching reforms which will see more classroom assistants, some of whom will take lessons to allow teachers more time for marking and preparation.

An analysis of the Government's £3bn package for the reforms by the National Association of Head Teachers has revealed that the knock-on effect of this year's budget crisis will leave only £500m of new money for the deal. A motion before its annual conference in York today will declare that it "renders it impossible'' to implement the agreement.

Mr Twigg will tell the conference he knows heads are under pressure from rising costs and that paying the 13,000 extra teachers taken on since 2001 is adding to budget pressures.

"We asked the pay review body last time to propose a three-year deal covering the period to 2006,'' he will add. "It is very much a matter of public regret that they didn't take up our proposal then. I put it on record now we want them to turn to this issue again next time. The people who would benefit the most are head teachers."

Meanwhile, Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, is to consider a radical reform of school funding – stripping local education authorities of their powers to finance schools if they fail to pass more money on to them this year. The Education Departmenthas said England's 150 local education authorities are holding £533m of funding back from schools.