TEACHERS have warned ongoing strikes are about more than pay and that the offer currently on the table risks the future of the profession in Scotland.
Members of the teaching union NASUWT held mock-up “report cards” outside First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Glasgow office in protest over the most recent pay offer put forward by the Scottish Government.
Speaking outside the office on Tuesday morning, one senior union official told The National the current pay crisis in Scotland’s schools could see “the education system … fall apart” in the long term.
Meanwhile, at the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) picket line outside the headquarters of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) in Edinburgh, tram drivers beeped their horns in support as they veered through the centre of the protest.
'Unaffordable is just spin'
Teachers are furious that their demand for a pay rise of 10% across the board has been rejected by ministers who said it was unaffordable and made a counter-offer of up to 6.85% for the lowest-paid teachers.
Phill Pierce, the Edinburgh EIS president, said: “Don’t let the government, Cosla or anyone else tell you that the country can’t afford to pay us properly. That is just spin.”
Citing research carried out by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) he said the Scottish Government had tax-raising powers well in excess of £456 million.
He added: “There is no shortage of wealth out there. Only a shortage of political will and a determination to hang on to the ridiculous dogma of austerity.”
More broadly, teachers told The National they have felt undervalued by the Scottish Government for years and accused the Edinburgh administration of failing to understand the demands placed on teachers.
Louise Bishop, the treasurer of the Edinburgh local EIS association, said: “It’s about pay but it’s also about teachers having the respect that they should have. We are so important to society. Everybody in society needs good quality education.
“In schools now we do so much. We’re not just delivering literacy and numeracy, we’re teaching kids about health and wellbeing, kindness, manners, we are vital to society.
“We need to be valued and the profession needs to be made attractive.
“I think it’s really sad that we’ve had to close schools. But it’s the only way that we can get our employers to hear us and believe us that we aren’t going to stop until we get remunerative pay.”
'Fix it - or education will fall apart'
At the Glasgow demo, Eddie Carroll, NASUWT’s national executive member for Scotland, warned that failing to increase teachers’ pay above inflation now will fuel crises brewing within the profession further down the line – including difficulties in attracting people to work in the sector and keeping them there.
He said: “This isn’t a short-term dispute, this has been brewing for 20 years and it’s borne of lots and lots of cuts for local authorities and you create a situation with reducing teachers’ pay that you get a retention crisis, you get a recruitment crisis and that’s where we are at the moment.
“That’s not going to go away any time soon. Teachers’ pay is one issue, teachers’ conditions are one issue – but if you can’t get teachers in at the bottom in order to take up the jobs, then the education system will fall apart.
“The teachers are the most important resource of everything that goes on in education and if mistreat them and you don’t treat them properly, then you’re not going to get the best out of the education system.”
Plea for Government to 'listen more'
Susan Cameron, a teacher at Anderston Primary in Glasgow: “I don’t think they [the Government] know the job that teachers do. I think if they knew what we do and how much of ourselves that we invest in our jobs, they would listen more.
“It’s not a case of there’s no money, it’s a case of how they spend it. There are places where money could come from but they’re choosing to spend it differently.”
She added: “There’s no continuity in schools. Each year, because young teachers are not being offered permanent contracts, half the staff in our school changes so each year, they’re having to get to know the school, get to know the children, and that’s not good. Continuity over years builds a school community.
“Teachers that know families and know children – it’s all about building relationships, that's what being a teacher is. It’s easier to build relationships if you are there for a long time. If half your staff changes every year, those relationships have to be rebuilt every year – that’s not the best way to do it.”
What are the people in charge saying?
A Scottish Government spokesperson said that a meeting on Monday had indicated teaching unions were prepared to “compromise” on pay and insisted while a 10% increase was “unaffordable” ministers remained committed to “a fair and sustainable pay deal”.
A Cosla spokesperson said: “With a changing demographic of teachers and also of the pupil population, recruitment is not an exact science and sometimes the numbers for both of these elements do not exactly align.
“Councils remain committed to getting probationer teachers into jobs where there is a need and to employing all teachers in and on the right type of contracts that meet the local needs of our children and young people.”
