Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the equity of the pay gap between further education college lecturers and school teachers.

The statutory requirements for maintained schoolteachers' pay are set nationally subject to recommendations from the School Teachers’ Review Body. In 2024/25, the median full-time equivalent (FTE) salary for classroom teachers in secondary schools was £50,471.

Further education (FE) colleges have statutory autonomy over the pay of their staff. Colleges have the freedom to meet local technical skills needs within their own local circumstances, and the government does not set college teacher pay. In 2024/25, the median FTE salary for teachers on permanent or fixed term contracts in general FE colleges was £37,581 and £49,725 in sixth-form colleges.

FE teachers are central to delivering high-quality technical education. Last year, we announced an additional £190 million for colleges and other 16 to 19 providers to help them address the recruitment and retention of specialist FE teachers. We are providing nearly £9 billion in 16 to 19 funding programme funding in the 2026/27 academic year.

Our targeted retention incentive offer is designed to retain eligible FE teachers in technical subjects with payments of up to £6,000 after tax. In its first year, nearly 6,000 teachers received a payment.