Save education

Snap poll result

The message you sent us in our snap poll was clear. You are prepared to take industrial action to secure the investment our schools desperately need, and for a teacher pay award that offsets the long years of real-terms cuts.

The poll was launched in response to the government’s delayed announcement on teacher pay and funding. We asked you to vote on whether the pay award and the funding for it were acceptable, and whether you would be prepared to take action to improve the pay rise and to win more funding for schools:

97 per cent of you found it unacceptable that your school will have to find the funds to make up the 1.1 per cent shortfall in government funding of the pay rise
89 per cent of you were prepared to take strike action to ensure the teacher pay award is fully funded, and
76 per cent of you were prepared to take strike action to win an improved pay offer this year

With a clear steer from you, your executive has agreed we will proceed with a formal ballot over a substantial increase in school funding and significant steps towards pay restoration, to open on 3 October.

Your collective voice is our greatest strength, and together we will succeed in fighting for an education system that students and staff deserve and can thrive in.

Get ready to vote in the formal ballot in October. We will be back in September with more information.

Teacher pay calculator

Use our pay calculator

Formal postal ballot for strike action

The national executive has decided that a formal ballot of teacher and support staff members will open on 3 October and close on 15 December

While NEU pressure resulted in a significantly increased offer – a 6.5 per cent increase over two years, rather than the government’s original plan to spread it across three, and an additional £700 million in 2026/27 to pay for it – it does not come fully-funded.

Schools are being left to find 1.1 per cent from existing budgets to fund pay rises for teachers and support staff – who have been offered 3.3 per cent.

It means collectively head teachers having to plug a £460 million shortfall in an education budget that’s been stripped to the bone by every successive government since 2010.

If the government does not take urgent action to save education, we must act. So, we are asking you to get ready:

Make sure all your contact details are up to date by visiting MyNEU.
Talk to your colleagues at school and make sure they have saved the date.
Get in touch with your NEU rep or branch secretary and find out more.

The government must step up and deliver the properly funded education system our children and young people deserve.

Press releases

Mae NEU Cymru yn ystyried cynnig cyflog athrawon

Ni allwn bwysleisio digon pa mor bwysig yw hi fod cost wirioneddol y codiad cyflog yn cyrraedd pob ysgol yng Nghymru.

Athrawon sy’n aelodau o NEU Cymru yn pleidleisio i DDERBYN cynnig cyflog

Mae 73% o athrawon sy’n aelodau o’r NEU yng Nghymru, a ymatebodd i ymgynghoriad yr undeb, wedi pleidleisio i DDERBYN y cynnig cyflog a gyflwynwyd gan Lywodraeth Cymru, a dod â’r anghydfod i ben.