Teachers' unions reacted furiously to the inflation-matching 2.9% pay award, calling it "a pay freeze".

Freezing teachers' pay will do nothing to retain teachers Doug McAvoy, NUT

Gerald Imison of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: "The government's award to teachers demonstrates how much they value them.

"Today's message says 'not very much'."

The rise is payable from April - at the same time as national insurance contributions go up by 1%.

Asked whether his members would go on strike, the head of the biggest union - Doug McAvoy of the NUT - said he thought not.

But he added: "Teachers will take action themselves and leave our schools."

Graduate pay gap

"Freezing teachers' pay will do nothing to retain teachers," Mr McAvoy said.

"They will be angry that their pay is frozen so that more support staff can be employed.

"Teachers are paying for the agreement on remodelling school staffing."

He said there was now a 12% gap between the starting salary for a teacher and the average paid to graduates entering other professions.

I put in all this hard work and don't really seem to be getting the rewards for it Science teacher Paul Whiting

"Graduates won't come into teaching they will go elsewhere," Mr McAvoy predicted.

One who is wondering whether to stay in teaching - and whether to move, if he does so - is Paul Whiting.

He teaches science - a subject in which there is a shortage of teachers - at Sandringham School in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

That is on the fringe of the area that attracts London cost-of-living allowances, so he will not benefit from the special deal for inner London.

"So I think it could be difficult over the next few years. I'm going to have to make some important decisions," he said.

"I know a lot of friends who I went to university with, working in things like accountancy and earning a lot more money than me.

"It is frustrating to see that I put in all this hard work and don't really seem to be getting the rewards for it."

Unions complain that even under the new proposals, a teacher will have to stay in inner London for at least five years before getting �5,000 to compensate for the extra expense of doing so.

They contrast this with a London-wide allowance for the police of more than �6,000.