Jamaican teachers at the UK's leading academy chain are paid less than their British colleagues | teaching

Teachers recruited from Jamaica to work at a major academy school chain in London have said they were shocked to discover they were being paid thousands of pounds less per year than English-educated recruits with a similar level of experience.

Harris Federation, Britain's second-largest academy chain with 54 state-funded schools, has been recruiting teachers from Jamaica in recent years, attracted by higher salaries than they could earn in the Caribbean. Brought to England.

But experienced teachers who worked at Harris schools for years told the Observer they were still classified as unqualified. This means you will be paid less than your qualified counterpart.

Teachers said they were struggling due to the high cost of living in London. Some also said they were left in deep trouble by the federation, expected to begin their education with little or no job-specific training and given no help finding accommodation.

Harris paid CEO Sir Dan Moynihan between $485,000 and $490,000 annually in 2022-23, with seven of its executives receiving at least $190,000 each at the time.

The federation said last year that it had hired more than 150 teachers in Jamaica since 2018. Earlier this month, Moynihan told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Now we are recruiting teachers in Jamaica because we just can't find them. [UK-trained] Teacher willing to live and work in central London.

Harris recruited in Jamaica through a company called Hourglass Education and also sent its own staff to conduct interviews.

Five Jamaican teachers told the Observer that neither Hourglass nor Harris had made it clear that it could take more than a year for Harris to begin the process of moving out of the unqualified teacher pay scale to gain a qualified teacher status (QTS).

In a statement to the Observer, Harris said he was no longer working with Hourglass.

Current regulations allow teachers recruited from countries including the EU and the US to go through the fast-track system to gain a QTS in the UK. This means that soon after you arrive you will be earning a salary similar to that of a UK-trained teacher.

Teachers from countries such as Jamaica, India, Ghana and Nigeria who are qualified to teach languages, mathematics and science in secondary schools are also included in this priority pathway.

However, teachers of other subjects in these countries work in English schools where unqualified teachers are paid less.

The national teacher pay scale in England from last year shows that less experienced staff using QTS can earn up to 47,666 in inner London, while more experienced professionals can rise to up to 56,959.

In contrast, teachers deemed unqualified earned up to 37,362 salaries, regardless of their previous overseas experience, but because unqualified Jamaican teachers are exempt from income tax for their first two years in the UK, the difference in actual salaries is not that significant. Harris is also offering bonuses of up to 2,000 to teachers who work beyond their contracted hours.

Harris Federation says it offers staff packages that go far beyond national pay agreements. Photo: Luke McGregor/Reuters

The process of becoming eligible to change this is managed by the school. The National Education Union (NEU) said all staff hired must go through the QTS application process within one year.

Daniel Kebede, Secretary-General of the NEU, said: The Harris Union is failing Overseas Trained Teachers (OTTs). Many of the schools in trust are rushing to deliver QTS courses to our members in a timely manner. It is frankly unacceptable for Harris to take more than a year to begin the process.

A Harris spokesperson said that from February it would no longer use a recruitment agency and had a dedicated relocation manager and mentor. They added: To ease the pressure on cost of living, we offer staff packages that go well beyond national salary contracts. However, the difficulty of finding and affording suitable housing in London is an issue that affects many teachers. In fact, we first raised this issue eight years ago and continue to work on possible solutions.

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One of the Observer's five teachers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was hired in 2020 but only received her QTS this year. This means Harris has been paying him unqualified wages for four years.

Michael (pseudonym), who teaches at a large academy, said he received $2,600 a month after taxes. The NEU said he would have received $3,275 after tax as a principally qualified teacher.

Michael said he felt the school was trying to delay his qualifications for as long as possible. He said: They want to keep as much money as possible by not getting it. [teachers from Jamaica] They are just as qualified as the rest of the staff.

It feels like another Windrush situation. It is a very devastating situation for us. It became really difficult to survive day to day because of the money paid.

A spokesperson for the Harris Federation said the students' education had been aided by an amazing group of staff from Jamaica. A spokesperson said headteachers across the country, particularly our headteachers in London, had staffed their classrooms at a time when they were facing a teacher recruitment crisis.

The Federation said the negativity of the NEU's campaign on this issue does not reflect the reality most people experience in our schools. However, like any large employer, there will of course be a few colleagues who are not 100% satisfied with their experience. In these cases, we do our best to address the concerns raised.

They added that they would fully fund the cost of obtaining a UK educational qualification for all Jamaican employees, and provide broad and practical support to enable as many employees as possible to achieve this within three years.

We provide comprehensive paid training in the summer before our overseas staff join us, and have a dedicated Relocation Mentor and designated HR Relocation Manager to help them and their partners or children make a much smoother transition to life in London.

As part of our induction there is a course explaining how to gain UK teaching qualifications. [overseas staff] Understand the UK education system and information about how to access high quality curriculum support.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/sep/28/jamaican-teachers-at-leading-uk-academy-chain-paid-less-than-their-british-colleagues The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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