SCOTLAND'S school strikes are set to carry on until April, with the country's largest teachers' union announcing another 22 days of strike action.
Members of the EIS are already set to walk out of the classroom next week as part of a 16-day programme of "rolling strike action" targeting two local authorities each day.
READ MORE: Scottish secondary school strike to hit every local council
The new dates include two days of national strike action in all schools and sectors on 28 February and 1 March, followed by a programme of strikes for 20 days between 13 March and 21 April when each local authority area will be impacted by three consecutive days of action.
The union said they had been forced to act because of the "inaction" of the Scottish Government and councils.
The EIS is seeking a 10 per cent pay rise, but ministers and council leaders have offered a bump to most teachers' salaries of £1,926 or 5%.
The Government and COSLA claim the deal is "progressive" as it is targetted at those on the lowest salaries, giving them a pay hike equivalent to 6.85%.
There have already been three days of national strike action – one in November and two in January.
READ MORE: Parents speak of pupils' distress as teachers go on strike
EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said: “After a year of dither, delay and disingenuity from the Scottish Government and COSLA, Scotland’s teachers have simply had enough.”
Ms Bradley added, “The recent days of strike action by Scotland’s teachers have succeeded in bringing COSLA and the Scottish Government back to the negotiating table – but they have yet to put a single extra penny onto that table.
"Scotland’s teachers rejected a sub-inflationary 5% offer six months ago, and little or no progress has been made in negotiations since.
"The prospect of 22 additional days of strike action, on top of the 16 days of rolling action set to begin next week, should signal clearly to the Scottish Government and COSLA that they must now act with urgency.
"Our members are resolute and determined to secure a fair pay settlement, which both properly reflects their value and also takes account of the soaring cost of living.”
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