Schools must be given extra funding to fund pay rises at the upcoming budget, the NASUWT teaching union has said. Matt Wrack, the union’s general secretary, also accused new prime minister Andy Burnham of making “unfunded promises” of new vocational pathways in schools. The NASUWT has today called on the government “to provide a substantial increase” in education funding as it launched its “fix our future, fund education” campaign. The campaign highlighted data and testimony from hundreds of teachers, “who describe school laptops being held together with duct tape, exhausting workloads, ballooning class sizes”. Union leaders pointed out the proportion of the country’s GDP spent on education has fallen from a high of 5.6 per cent in 2009-10 to a low of 3.9 per cent today. The NASUWT wants to see this raised to at least 6 per cent. With the autumn budget – the first major fiscal event for Andy Burnham’s government – looming, Wrack urged the prime minister to “fund education – or leave teachers and pupils to suffer, and watch all your bold plans fail”. Quarter can’t afford pay rise The government raised national teacher pay rates by 3.5 per cent this month, but asked schools to stump up around half of the cost. A further 3 per cent pay rise is coming next year. The NASUWT estimates one-quarter of schools cannot afford the rises. This includes 50 per cent of maintained schools and 18 per cent of academies, said Wrack. The union has been asked to provide further details of its analysis. In a NASUWT survey of 1,900 teacher members, almost 6 per cent said their school was not paying teachers the full award because it was not fully funded. Meanwhile 70 per cent said they felt their school did not receive the funding needed for quality teaching and learning. This rose to 78 per cent among primary teachers. Of those, 41 per cent said funding pressures have had a “significant” increase on their workload, while a further 11 per cent described their workload increase as “unsustainable”. Source: NASUWT Meanwhile, 67 per cent reported cuts to classroom teaching assistants, 67 per cent said staff who leave are not replaced and 58 per cent reported cuts to classroom resources. Almost three-quarters of respondents (73 per cent) reported spending their own money for work, with 54 per cent spending on stationery and 42 per cent on learning resources. Two in 10 said they spent at least £50 a month, and one in 10 more than £100. Source: NASUWT Elsewhere, as the government rolls out its white paper reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system, more than 90 per cent of teachers said the complexity of SEND has increased at their school. Yet 69 per cent said they will not have the resources or support needed to meet those children’s needs. Teachers reported lower staffing levels meant some classes had upwards of 40 students, while one reported a lack of non-specialist teachers leading to “sub-standard teaching and also really poor behaviour” at their school. Wrack: We need change Wrack said Burnham’s election has “created a certain change in political dialogue”. But the big test, he said, will be whether people “see real changes in their lives…in the lives of their children and the schools in their communities”. “We need to see some clear signs of that. “I don’t think people’s patience with a new prime minister…will last forever. I think Andy Burnham has to really start delivering on those ideas of change that he he’s hinted at.” Wrack said Burnham’s plans to bolster more vocational pathways have “not been discussed in any detail with [NASUWT] or other trade unions”, and that the government “needs to involve the people who would deliver those changes on the ground”. ‘Unfunded promises’ “Andy Burnham may have bold ideas about new technical education but we still don’t know if this will mean extra funding,” Wrack added. Burnham revealed his plans for more vocational pathways over summer, but no new funding has yet been announced. Matt Wrack “While he raises the public’s expectations with unfunded promises, teachers and pupils pay the price,” said Wrack. Wrack refuted the defence that education funding has reduced due to falling pupil numbers. He said falling rolls “should never equate to 78 per cent of primary teachers saying their school doesn’t have enough funding, or 80 per cent of primary teachers reporting cuts to TA support”. “Cuts in education are happening at an alarmingly disproportionate rate, hitting our youngest and most vulnerable pupils hardest,” he added. “Teachers deserve better. Our children deserve better. Frankly, the government must do better.” Wrack acknowledged increasing funding could be difficult from a fiscal perspective, but said NASUWT and other unions “have set out options”. “There are some very wealthy individuals [and] some very, very, very wealthy organisations, and some simple measures such as changing the tax rules in relation to banking, where we’ve seen an explosion in bank bonuses. “Let’s start to address that and think about where some of those resources should go.” Strike not ruled out Wrack told a press conference on Monday that he had written to Burnham and new education secretary Lucy Powell, laying out “clear asks” of the government – things it could do “to send quite quick messages that things are actually changing”. NASUWT has previously suggested it could follow steps taken by the National Education Union and call a national strike ballot over pay and conditions. Wrack said he hoped NASUWT’s new campaign would lead to ” a serious discussion” with the secretary of state and prime minister. But asked if it could lead to a strike ballot, he said he “would not want to rule out any option in how we respond to this”. The Department for Education was approached for comment.