“Little or no progress” has been made on the 2021 promise to reduce Scottish teachers’ class-contact time by 90 minutes, according to a national group representing the profession.
Now it has called for confirmation that the policy will be implemented in full and that the extra time away from classes will be used for “preparation and correction of student work”.
It says this would “ease the pressure on over-burdened teaching staff”.
The teachers’ panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), made up of teaching unions, today “strongly criticised” the Scottish government for “severe lack of progress“ on the SNP manifesto commitment to reduce teachers’ class-contact time by 90 minutes per week, to 21 hours from the current 22.5 hours.
The panel said that Scotland’s teachers have among the highest class-contact commitments in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), adding: “The manifesto promise to reduce class-contact time commitments would, if properly implemented, ease the pressure on over-burdened teaching staff by allowing essential additional time for preparation and correction of student work.”
However, secondary headteachers’ body School Leaders Scotland has a different view. In a Tes piece about the contact-time policy in May 2022, it said it would like to see much of the 90 minutes used for “collaborative work” and continuing professional development.
In November 2022, members of primary school leaders’ body AHDS cheered at their annual conference when then education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville acknowledged their concerns that the policy could place “additional burdens on school leadership teams”.
Following an SNCT meeting yesterday, Des Morris, chair of the SNCT Teachers’ Side, said: “Sadly and frustratingly, there has still been very little progress on the delivery of the manifesto commitment to reduce teachers’ class-contact time.
“The Teachers’ Side has been pushing for confirmation that this promise will be implemented in full. More than two years down the line from the commitment being made ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, we have no progress and very little clarity on precisely how and when this promise will be delivered.”
Mr Morris said the policy would “bring significant benefits to teachers and students alike”, but added: “We require clarity on the precise details of the plan to implement the reduction in teachers’ class-contact hours.
“Teachers are very clear that they expect this commitment to be delivered to bring Scottish teachers more closely in line with their colleagues elsewhere in the OECD, and that they expect the additional non-contact time to be allocated to preparation and correction of student work.”
The SNCT panel also wants to see commitment fully funded, “so that it does not add further to the workload of promoted staff”.
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth was quizzed about the class-contact time policy in Parliament today, by Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy, who said: “Under this government, teachers are under more and more pressure, classrooms are like pressure cookers, class sizes have got bigger, and teachers have been left wondering when the commitment to increase their non-contact time will be delivered.
“So does the cabinet secretary acknowledge that fulfilling the promise on non-contact time is essential to addressing the environment in the classroom, poor behaviour and violence in schools?”
Ms Gilruth said that she had been in touch with Ms Duncan-Glancy about class-contact time before the summer holidays and would update her again in the coming weeks.
In June, the EIS teaching union backed industrial action if the promise to reduce teachers’ class-contact time is not achieved.
A Scottish government spokesperson said it was “committed to working with the SNCT on progressing the commitment to reducing class-contact time and is determined that planning for this is based on robust evidence”.
The spokesperson added: “Scotland currently has the most teachers-per-pupil in the UK and school education spend per person is higher than in England and Wales. Additionally, overall pupil teacher ratios remain their lowest level since 2009 and our teachers are now amongst the highest paid in the OECD.
“Councils are also being supported with an additional £145.5 million this year to protect increased teacher numbers. Where this is not being delivered by a local authority, the Scottish government will withhold or recoup funding given for this purpose.”
