Teachers offered 4% pay rise

Teachers in Northern Ireland have been offered a pay rise of 4% for 2025/26, backdated to 1 September 2025.

The offer has come from the teaching employers, including the Department of Education (DE).

Teaching unions have welcomed the pay offer, and said it was "the maximum possible in the current financial circumstances".

However, each individual union will now consult their members on the offer.

The pay offer comes on the same day as Stormont's budget proposals were published by the finance minister John O'Dowd.

While education has received some more money in the draft budget, it is still likely to face significant funding pressures.

For most teachers, a 4% increase would see their pay rise by between £1,000 - £2,000 a year before tax.

A 4% rise would mean that a teacher at the bottom of the pay scale currently earning £31,650 per year would see their pay rise to £32,916.

While a teacher higher up the pay scale currently earning £48,919 a year would see their pay rise to £50,876.

The teaching employers, known as the management side, said that the 4% pay offer for 2025/26 "represents the best that can be achieved against the backdrop of increasing financial pressures."

As well as DE, the employers include the Education Authority (EA), the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta (CnaG), the Governing Bodies Association (GBA) and the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education.

Teachers in England had previously received a 4% pay rise in 2025.

The Education Minister Paul Givan had said that he hoped to be able to make a similar offer to teachers in Northern Ireland.

Teachers in Northern Ireland had accepted a 5.5% rise in 2024/25, which again mirrored settlements elsewhere in the UK.

The umbrella body for the five teaching unions, the Northern Ireland Teachers' Council, welcomed the 4% offer for 2025/26.

In a statement they said that, "while teachers will have hoped for more, the NITC believes that this offer is the maximum possible in the current financial circumstances".

Some individual unions, including NASUWT, have said that they will be recommending that their members accept the offer.

INTO and NAHT both said they welcome the pay offer and will be consulting with their respective members about it.

Speaking on the BBC's Evening Extra programme, Justin McCamphill from NASUWT said the pay offer was "a good deal for teachers" but they would "still be concerned about outstanding issues around workload".

McCamphill said if the payment was accepted by members, there should be back pay for teachers which should be paid by "the end of February to the majority of members".

He added: "The pay offer that we are considering at the minute should have been paid in September."