Teachers are "very hopeful" a fresh pay deal will be made ahead of a planned national strike that will close schools across the country.
Members of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, are due to walk out on Thursday in a dispute over pay.
General secretary Andrea Bradley said today that after "informal discussions" with the government she was "very, very hopeful" an improved pay offer would be made.
Thursday’s planned action by the union would be the first national strike over teachers’ pay for for almost 40 years.
The union boss said: "I’m very hopeful we will have a new offer, very, very hopeful.
"I have been in informal discussions with the Scottish Government and I am hopeful that something that will be worth considering by our salaries committee will be forthcoming at the beginning of the week.”
She said the EIS stands ready to "consider a new offer as soon as it comes to us", with a special meeting of the union’s salaries committee now scheduled for Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of its executive committee the following day.
"We are more ready to consider any offer that comes forward from the Scottish Government and Cosla over the course of the next couple of days,” Ms Bradley said.
The union’s efforts to win a larger pay rise for its members come at a time when Bradley said some teachers were having to visit foodbanks to feed themselves and their families amid soaring costs for food and fuel.
She said: "Teachers should have had a pay increase in their bank accounts on April 1, this is now the middle of November and we have had nothing, zero, by way of a pay award against a backdrop of rising inflation.
"Which means they are struggling, they are struggling to meet the cost of food, fuel, energy, housing, such that some of our own members are now visiting foodbanks.”
She stressed the union was "prepared to negotiate" but added that even the 10 per cent rise being sought would represent a “1.1% real terms pay cut” given the current rate of inflation.
Bradley added: "That’s against a backdrop of teachers salaries having eroded to the tune of 25% since 2008 in real terms."
Deputy First Minister John Swinney has already warned that finding the cash for increased public sector pay will result in spending cuts elsewhere.
Speaking last week he insisted there were "no unallocated resources".
He said: "If I want to put any more money into a public sector pay deal, beyond what’s already on the table, I have to cut public expenditure and public services."
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