Heads earning more than PM face new crackdown

HEAD teachers who earn more than the Prime Minister have been ordered to justify their fat-cat salaries, the Schools Minister revealed last night.

Lord Agnew told The Mail on Sunday that he had written to almost 300 schools where senior staff are on six-figure contracts.

The Department for Education said that last year 66 head teachers earned more than the PM’s £150,000 – with one paid £260,000.

Lord Agnew said: ‘Proper financial management is essential to ensuring all children get the excellent education they deserve. I have always challenged schools to use taxpayers’ money as effectively as possible.’

He warned he would ‘bear down on unjustified pay’.

As Education Secretary, Michael Gove pledged in 2010 that no head teacher would earn more than the PM. All those who earn above £150,000 are employed by academy schools, which operate outside local authority control and are free to set their own pay rates.

Lord Agnew has written to 271 academy trusts, with 51 promising to cut senior salaries.

High earners include Colin Hall, head of Holland Park School in West London – once dubbed ‘the socialist Eton’ – who earned £260,000 last year, and Dayo Olukoshi, executive head of Brampton Manor Academy in East London, who took home £220,000.

Chris Keates, acting general secretary of teachers’ union the NASUWT said: ‘Head teachers have a demanding job and their pay should reflect this. However, the excessive freedoms and flexibilities over pay given to schools by the Government in too many cases has led to an abuse of the system.’