Teachers' pay in Northern Ireland

That this House notes the long-standing teachers and schools leaders pay dispute in Northern Ireland; stands with unions and their members campaigning for change; further notes that teacher’s pay in Northern Ireland has dropped by a staggering 25% in the past decade, causing recruitment and retention issues, resulting in a continued shortage of teachers and an impact on the quality of education for children and young people; additionally notes that Northern Ireland teachers are paid significantly less than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK; highlights the lack of action on this and the devastating impact this is having on the morale of the profession; calls on the UK Government to take action to implement parity and a fair pay settlement to ensure teachers in NI are properly remunerated for the critical job they do; is concerned by the long-term systemic defunding of school budgets, which is severely hampering schools’ abilities to meet the immediate needs of enrolled children; further highlights the demise of many supporting services and initiatives, resulting in additional heavy responsibilities being devolved to schools; and is further concerned by the collapse of support services for children with additional and special educational needs and the severe shortage of special school places, resulting in children being taught in inappropriate settings with inadequate resourcing for their needs.