“We are clearly still negotiating. In fact,late into last night,both the Teachers Federation and the government were swapping offers,” she said.

Identifying and agreeing on productivity improvements was a key sticking point,Car suggested,saying finding those gains would be a “significant achievement of this government”.

Gavrielatos said the agreement had spelt out significant changes to teachers’ salary structure,that would have made “teacher salaries in NSW competitive ... such that the salaries of beginning and top-of-the-scale teachers would have been the highest in the country”.

Salaries for teachers in NSW start at $75,791 for graduates,and can climb to $113,042 at the top of the scale.

Teachers who go through a complex process to become a highly accomplished or lead teacher can earn about $120,000. Pay rises to $126,528 if they transition to management,or take on more responsibilities as an assistant principal.

Gavrielatos said the deal had included lifting starting teacher salaries to $85,000,and top-paid teachers to $122,100.

“In opposition,the Minns government committed to immediately commence negotiations to address workload and uncompetitive salaries. This is contributing to the exodus of teachers,which was resulting in an inability to recruit teachers and retain teachers,” he said.

The government has offeredpublic sector workers a one-year 4 per cent pay rise plus 0.5 per cent superannuation,at a cost of $618 million.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell accused the government of overpromising on pay increases for teachers.

“This is the million-dollar question here because,before the election,the government said that they could deliver pay rises with productivity gains,and at a zero cost of the budget,” she said.

“We now know that that’s not true.”

Earlier this year theHerald revealed the Minns government would dump the previous Coalition’s rewarding excellence program,led by education academic John Hattie,which planned to give a selection of top teachers salaries of up to $150,000.

Public school principals have previously flagged their concerns that private schools are scooping up graduates with salaries of $10,000 to $50,000 above what state schools offer.

The latest impasse in negotiations comes after tens of thousands of NSW public and Catholic school teachers walked off the job over pay and conditions in a series of historic strikes last year.

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