In a move that was intended to defuse teacher protests over pay, Mr Blunkett revealed a new salary structure for teachers which would offer good teachers the prospect of better pay.

However, he refused to rule out the possibility that the teachers' pay award for 1999-2000 would be lower than the headline rate of inflation.

'Good faith'

The government intends to create 5,000 Advanced Skills Teachers - or "super teachers" - over the next two years. ASTs will be paid a salary of £40,000, compared to the current £23,000 maximum for the main teacher grade.

The purpose of ASTs is to teach, but also to "spread excellence" to other schools. Mr Blunkett said the new posts are an "indication of good faith in the rewards people will see for doing a good job well".

Defending the plan, he said: "I haven't got vast sums of money next year for pay." He warned teachers not to harm their professional reputations by striking.

Strikes possible

At the National Union of Teachers conference in Harrogate on Saturday, NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said that teacher strikes were more likely now than at any time in the last 10 years, and repeated a demand for pay increases of up to 12%.

Doug McAvoy: 12% pay demand

Mr Blunkett was quick to play down the threat of strikes and told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme: "I don't think it's very likely that teachers will strike, because they're going to be paid more.

"I think it would be very foolish if they damaged the standards agenda and the standing of their profession.

"We have to sit down and talk rationally, and we will, about how to reward people well and how to structure the profession so that it attracts people and keeps people in it."

Threats and promises

Delegates at the NUT conference condemned performance-related pay of any kind and branded the pay award of 34% to Chief Schools Inspector Chris Woodhead "hypocritical" in view of the government's professed inflation target of 2.5%.

Performance-related pay is part of a package of reforms in a government green paper on ways to combat the crisis in teacher recruitment. It is likely to be rushed through parliament before Christmas.

Mr Blunkett said: "We have to establish a structure that ensures there is a proper evaluation of what people are doing.

"We have to get it right and we have to make it fair and transparent, so that people can see why others have been rewarded."

He said the pay structure reforms were "not a threat, but a promise" and no teachers would be poorer as a result.

'Education jeopardised'

Mr McAvoy claimed the government's proposals to introduce ASTs while restricting the pay of ordinary teachers would damage the profession.

"Five thousand new posts out of nearly half-a-million teachers. This hardly a career prospect," he said.

"The government wants to achieve educational objectives. It can't do that unless it successfully recruits into the profession, and retains and motivates, high-quality staff.

"To constrain pay levels and offer no career enhancement or reward for professional development will put those educational objectives in jeopardy."