Scotland’s biggest teachers’ union has backed industrial action if the promise to reduce teachers’ class-contact time is not delivered.
EIS campaigning would also focus on class sizes and an ambition to cap numbers at 20 in all classes.
Delegates backing the motion at the EIS annual general meeting warned that any steps towards industrial action will have to start soon, as teachers are “on their knees”.
The EIS Edinburgh local association called for work to start on “a campaign of industrial action to address the workload crisis facing teachers”, which would draw on lessons learned in the union’s recent Pay Attention campaign and seek commitments from the Scottish government and local authorities to:
- Begin implementing the reduction of weekly class-contact time to 21 hours (from 22.5 hours) “as soon as is practicable”.
- “Wholly devote” the increased non-contact time to “personal preparation and correction” time (concerns have been expressed that if teachers are instead required to go to unhelpful meetings and CPD then the policy could actually increase their workload burden).
- Begin planning a phased reduction of class sizes, “with the ultimate aim of all classes being limited to a maximum of 20 pupils”.
Edinburgh teacher Phil Pearce said: “We cannot wait another two years to build up a campaign. We’re already ready. Our members are ready. We’re ready in this room. Now is the time to take action on this motion and get things moving.”
Teachers suffering ‘high levels of stress’
Fellow Edinburgh delegate Allan Crosbie, who proposed the motion, said: “We are an education workforce that is being forced to work in environments so stressful that it is making us unwell.”
He cited “very poor levels of wellbeing and high levels of stress” and described the teaching profession as being “on its knees”.
Mr Crosbie added: “Our new cabinet secretary [for education, Jenny Gilruth] wrote to us in April with some very warm words about how much she values us. But she needs to say more about when and how the manifesto promise [on] contact hours will be implemented.”
Jehann Al-Azzawi, also from Edinburgh, seconded the motion, and set the issue of contact time within the context of myriad other sources of anxiety for teachers in Scotland.
She said: “We can’t retain high-quality teachers without paying them a decent wage. We can’t alleviate the workload crisis without investing in more teachers.
“We can’t respond to the challenge of violence and behaviour in our schools without investing in more staff and professional agency partners to support our schools. We can’t diversify our workforce, decolonise our curriculum or embed anti-racism in our schools without carefully crafted recruitment campaigns and investment in relevant high-quality CPD.
“We can’t close the poverty-related attainment gap without investing in initiatives like free school meals and more broad-based investment in all aspects of our ever-deteriorating public services.”
