Warning over teacher 'brain drain'

Northern Ireland faces a teacher "brain drain" unless additional payments made in England and Wales are extended to the province, the government has been warned.

The 150,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said it wanted assurances that teachers in Northern Ireland can benefit from the £2,000 additional payment being offered to their counterparts in Britain as part of the latest pay deal.

The union said: "This has enormous recruitment and retention implications as teachers from Northern Ireland may leave the area as they see more opportunities elsewhere."

And they said it would also impact on teachers near retirement age as their pension entitlement would be less than their colleagues in England and Wales.

The ATL is also demanding that postgraduate student teachers in Northern Ireland should receive a new £6,000 training allowance that is being made available by the government to trainees elsewhere.

'Monitoring the situation'

They expressed concern that major decisions on education in Northern Ireland were being neglected due to the lack of a full-time minister since the assembly was suspended.

Eddie Ferguson, ATL senior vice president, said: "There is a serious danger that Northern Ireland is falling behind England and Wales in many respects.

"I am particularly concerned that the long-established principle of pay parity with teachers in England and Wales could be jeopardised.

"Tony Blair may say 'education, education, education' but in Northern Ireland this seems to translate to 'defer, defer, defer'."

The Department of Education in Northern Ireland said it had been monitoring the situation in England and Wales as far as the £2,000 payment was concerned.

A spokesman said Northern Ireland had its own negotiating machinery.

He said: "There has been a long term tradition of parity in Northern Ireland. We will be consulting locally about the introduction of arrangements similar to those in England."

But the spokesman indicated the £6,000 training allowance had little chance of being introduced.

He said the department did not consider it would be appropriate to use "a financial carrot" as there were plenty of high quality students coming forward.

"We don't need financial inducements, but it will be kept under review," he said.