The head of Scotland’s largest and oldest teaching union has issued a warning against the “serious and long-lasting” consequences of underfunding and mismanagement across the education sector.
In an opinion piece written for today’s Herald, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley criticised the timing of the UK General Election, which she said has interrupted important conversations about education in Scotland.
Most visibly for teachers, it has prevented hundreds of delegates at the EIS Annual General Meeting (AGM) from hearing directly from Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth.
“Although Scottish education is a devolved issue, the launch of the UK General Election is clearly having an impact on debate around all public services, including Education.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jenny Gilruth, was scheduled to speak at this year’s AGM and to engage in a Q&A session with teachers, but this was cancelled with the Scottish Government citing the UK General Election processes as the reason for the late cancellation.”
She added: “This is unfortunate, as the AGM provides a very rare opportunity for classroom teachers to ask questions and seek answers directly from the Cabinet Secretary.”
And teachers, she said, have many questions and concerns that they would like to voice.
Scottish education is facing a crisis: politicians must listen
Teachers work average 11 hours beyond contract terms
During Thursday’s sessions at the AGM, the EIS released the results of a new independent study on teacher workload.
The report found that teachers in Scotland work an average of 11.39 hours beyond their contract terms, and identified relationships between disruptive behaviour, added responsibilities, personal stress and extra hours.
She also referenced the ongoing industrial actions, pay disputes and negotiations that are dominating the school and college sectors.
The teachers' panel of Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) recently rejected a new pay offer from local authority employers, prolonging pay talks that began when teachers submitted their claim in January.
After waiting for the employers’ first offer, Ms Bradley said, teaching unions needed little time for consideration.
“The offer which eventually came after 134 days of waiting – very coincidentally just two days before the EIS AGM was set to take place – was below inflation, offered nothing by way of pay restoration and was wholly unacceptable to Scotland’s teachers.
“The offer, which we had waited 5 months to receive, was rejected by teaching unions in just 24 hours.”
Read more: Scottish teachers 'unanimously' reject pay off from councils
Fractious negotiations aren’t just an issue for the school sector, either.
At the same time that EIS delegates are meeting at the Caird Hall in Dundee, EIS-FELA staff from Dundee and Angus College scheduled a picket rally at the Kingsway campus. The strike action at Dundee and Angus is part of an ongoing national dispute over pay that dates back to 2022.
“This is not a dispute over pay for this year or even last year,” Ms Bradley said. “But for a pay settlement that was due to be paid to lecturers in in 2022, almost two years ago.
“In the midst of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, when soaring inflation has taken a massive toll on the value of pay, Scotland’s college lecturers are still being paid at 2021 levels.
“This is a disgrace, which should shame Scotland’s college employers and a Scottish Government that has abdicated all responsibility over this area of the public sector, giving free reign for employers to engage in the type of aggressive, anti-trade union action that would have embarrassed a Victorian workhouse owner.“
A spokesperson for College Employers Scotland (CES), which represents college managers in negotiations, said that negotiations are ongoing over the union’s revised pay claim “in good faith.”
“Negotiations between employers and the EIS-FELA are due to continue in good faith next week, and this hyperbolic language is not only inaccurate and unhelpful but should embarrass the EIS.
“As acknowledged publicly by EIS-FELA representatives, the trade union’s four-year pay claim encompasses the full and final £5,000 pay offer already made by employers for 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25.
“With the dispute now over a future pay rise not due until September 2025, many people will be rightly confused that the EIS-FELA continues to threaten students’ course outcomes through strikes and a resulting boycott in June 2024.
“Employers are keen to get pay rises into lecturers’ pockets as the summer holiday period approaches.
“The quickest way for this to happen is for the EIS-FELA to ballot its members on the employers’ £5,000 pay offer while discussions continue on a pay agreement for 2025/26.”
Read more: Teacher workload and strike warnings: 5 things to know ahead of EIS conference
Regardless of the status of negotiations, Ms Bradley said that all of the factors at play in the education sector are creating a workforce that is struggling and the affects are trickling down to students.
“The sad truth is that Scottish education is facing a crisis. Years of underfunding of the sector have left our education establishments struggling to cope.
“These pressures are having a severe detrimental impact on the educational experience of pupils and students, and will have serious and long-lasting consequences for their life chances.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:
“The Scottish Government is investing record levels in the education system, with £4.8 billion allocated for 2024-25. This will support our commitments on narrowing the attainment gap, expanding free school meals, free tuition fees and supporting teacher pay and numbers. As part of this, we are also providing colleges with more than £750 million in funding to support their delivery of high quality education and training.
“We also value the hard work of the teaching workforce. Teacher pay is a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) and talks will continue with unions with a view to reaching an agreement which ensures a sustainable deal for all involved.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel