Students and parents in South Australia face a nervous wait to hear whether teachers will call off a strike which threatens to disrupt year 12 exams after a record pay offer from the government.
After months of negotiations, the state government handed down their third - and potentially final - offer to the Australian Education Union on Monday, lifting the previous $1.3 billion three-year deal by $100 million.
Union executives are scheduled to meet on Monday evening to consider the proposal after members last week voted 83 per cent in favour of walking off the job on Thursday.
In its ultimatum to Education Minister Blair Boyer, the union said it would go ahead with the strike unless an improved offer was presented by today.
"We've met the deadline," Mr Boyer told reporters. "It's clearly an improved offer by a lot of money, so on that basis, if the union's true to their word, there won't be a strike on Thursday."
The new pay offer will net teachers a four per cent pay rise in year one of the agreement, followed by increases of three per cent and 2.5 per cent, after the previous offer of three per cent per year over three years.
Due to compound interest, the new offer represents a 9.8 per cent pay rise over three years compared to 9.3 per cent in the previous deal.
During negotiations, the union has also been seeking a reduction in instructional hours to ease workloads.
The government has agreed to reduce classroom hours by one hour a week to give teachers more time to plan for lessons, which would be phased in over seven years to cope with staff shortages.
The union has previously demanded the reduction to come into effect during the term of the agreement, but Mr Boyer said there was no room for movement on the timeline, with 500 extra teachers needed to avoid reducing students' classroom hours.
If accepted, the enterprise agreement would also make it easier for teachers to apply for funding for children with a disability, afford them the right to disconnect and provide increased permanency for relief teachers.
The minister said negotiations continued to be conducted in good spirits but threw down the gauntlet to AEU SA branch president Andrew Gohl to accept the deal.
"This is where the rubber hits the road," he said.
"I don't think strike action on Thursday will further the union's case at all. In fact, the opposite is true."
Thousands of teachers walked off the job in September, shutting or affecting teaching at hundreds of public schools across SA.
The union called off a follow-up strike later that month after it appeared the parties were closer to reaching an agreement.
Contingencies are in place for exams to go ahead should the union not back down, Mr Boyer said, but he hoped that wouldn't be the case, with students concerned about not being able to ask last minute questions to striking teachers.
