Teachers in the island are set to receive their biggest pay rise in 15 years, the government has announced.

It comes after Gavin Williamson, the UK Education Secretary, accepted all recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) on Tuesday.

Teaching unions have been in a long-running dispute with the Department of Education, Sport and Culture over pay and conditions.

The accepted recommendations will mean the starting salary for new teachers will increase by 5.5% and the maximum of the main pay range and the upper and lower boundaries of all other pay and allowances increased by 2.75%.

The recommendations are equivalent to a 3.1% increase in the overall pay bill, 2% of which is already included in budgets and the remaining 1.1% will be found from within existing budgets.

Education Minister Dr Alex Allinson MHK said: ‘The recommendations recognise the outstanding contribution teachers make to our society and will help attract the most talented candidates to teach our children and young people.

‘The Isle of Man has long mirrored the agreed pay arrangements in England - so this is the biggest pay rise the profession has seen since 2005 - with above-inflation rises to the pay ranges for every single teacher. Inspirational teachers change lives and I am delighted with this move which will boost recruitment of such valued staff.’

Isle of Man teachers are paid the same as those in England and their annual pay award, once published in a separate document called the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), has been implemented by the Manx government in exactly the same way since 1992.

The pay increase is equivalent to £1,250 on average for teachers and £1,970 on average for headteachers and will, once confirmed in the STPCD, be implemented in the island from September 1.

Main scale teachers in the island received a 3.5% pay award in 2018 and 2.75% in 2019.