Three years of sub inflation pay increments = A PAY CUT!!

How many workers in any industry are willing to take a pay cut, whether imposed by employers or government. If you wouldn't accept that yourself, why would you feel that teachers should?

Up to £10,000 in student debt to be paid back at 5% interest, and you are offered 2.5%, just at the time that your cost of living rises by 4%.

Electricity and gas 14-15% up.
Council tax 8% up, where I live.
Fuel for your car up 58pence per gallon in the last year (currently £5+ per gallon for unleaded, and a lot more than that for diesel)
Food up by more than 5% in the last few weeks.

How can this government claim any fiscal credibility when in spite of all this they cut pay to public service workers, in real terms, while increasing both their own pay, and their expenses too.

I think it fair to say that the teachers have a point. The fact that they earn more than certain other public employees is not an excuse for cutting THEIR salaries, but rather a good reason to review police and NHS workers pay with a view to an increase in line with the true rate of inflation.

As for the effect on the pupils sitting, or about to sit exams, well, if one day lost will cause them to fail, they didn't have much chance of passing without losing that day.

As a spokesman said on BBCs Breakfast program, if we drive all the best brains out of the profession by refusing adequately to reward them for their skills, then we are selling our children short and jeopardising their future.

Don T.(Not a teacher, or a teachers' representative. Just a bloke who has worked alongside teachers for fifteen years, and learned to respect and admire them for their skills, and for their patience with stupid politicians, which is understandably wearing thin).