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Parents at fee-paying schools in Jersey have been warned to brace for price hikes as the education institutions seek to balance the books in the wake of the teacher pay row, which has cost government around £7.6m.
A Ministerial Decision made public last week showed that the Treasury Minister signed off on releasing £7,556,000 from central coffers to fund the agreed teacher pay rises, comprising a consolidated award of £6,062,000 and a non-consolidated award of £1,494,000, towards the end of last month.
It followed a long-running dispute between the Government and teachers over pay dating back to autumn 2022.
The teacher pay deal agreed in January comprised an 8% rise and a £1,500 one-off payment for this year. It also guaranteed of a rise 1% above inflation for both 2025 and 2026.
Members of the National Education Union voted to accept the Government's offer in February.
This followed the acceptance of the deal by the other main teaching union, the NASUWT, just before Christmas.
Parents of students at Jersey College for Girls, De La Salle College, and Victoria College were recently notified of impending increases in school fees to maintain a balanced budget in the wake of the agreed pay settlement for teaching staff.
In a letter to parents seen by Express, the Chair of De La Salle's finance committee explained that the teacher pay increases mean that the school needs to up fees by 10%.
De La Salle College announced in the letter that fees would therefore rise from £2,680 to £2,952 per term from September to cover expenses.
The Chair of the Board of Governors of Victoria College also informed parents in a letter last week that the school would implement an 8% increase in school fees.
Speaking in the States Assembly last week, new Education Minister Deputy Rob Ward said that he was keen to prevent future industrial action by rebuilding trust and fostering clear dialogue with education professionals.
Deputy Rob Ward said: "We need to view education as an investment not cost, as the return from every well-educated person on the island is significant."
Pictured: Education Minister and Reform Deputy Rob Ward.
The Reform politician added that he was "confident" that there would no be further disputes between teaching unions and the Government.
"We have managed to reset trust that has been lost in the education profession over the past two years and beyond because of the industrial strike that was happening," he told the Assembly.
"The potential for industrial action only happens when the dialogue is not there and the wrong decisions have been made, which is what happened before.
"We have a clear line of dialogue and a clear line of value for the profession that gives us an opportunity to move forward with staff."
Additionally, Deputy Ward said that efforts to improve collaboration with teaching assistants include updating their employment terms, roles, pay scales, career projections, and training programmes.
Among the items in Deputy Ward's in-tray is updating the funding formula for States fee-paying schools.
In the letter announcing their fee changes, Victoria College said there was a lack of clarity over this.
The letter read: "The Government of Jersey has historically provided us with an amount per pupil, which was based on 47% of the amount a pupil would receive if they attended a fully provided school.
"The funding formula for fully provided schools changed in the calendar year ended 31 December 2023, but we are yet to be advised of a funding formula strategy for Government-provided fee-paying schools.
"We are informed that funding for 2024 is no longer based on pupil numbers but have yet to understand the basis of the calculation of the figure provided to us."
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