A new campaign will be launched to tackle “years of underfunding and austerity” in Scottish education, the outgoing president of the country’s biggest teaching union said this afternoon.
EIS president Andrene Bamford, addressing the first day of the union’s AGM in Aviemore, pointed to the success of the teacher pay campaign in rallying members behind the new campaign.
She also suggested that now, in a period of wide-ranging education reform, was a particularly important time for teachers and the EIS to make their voices heard.
“At this conference, we are going to be officially launching a new national campaign that will seek to address the legacy that years of underfunding and austerity have left for our young people and their families and on our education system,” said Ms Bamford.
“We still have classes that are too big, teachers with crippling workloads, young people who aren’t getting the support they need and an education system that is hanging in the balance while we await the promise of education reform to unfold.
“As teachers and members, we now hold education in our hands. And we must act together to ensure that real change happens so that Scotland has an education system that is equally good to that anywhere else in the world.”
Ms Bamford also said that each EIS member had “a duty to fight to ensure that trade unionism is not only protected, but that it is recognised and valued at all levels of government in Scotland, the UK and across the world”.
She added: “We must continue to push back on the anti-trade union laws and on any attempt to undermine our right to take industrial action.”
Ms Bamford also urged delegates to convince fellow EIS members “that collegiality - that professional respect and trust - is not something that they should experience in schools, local authorities and the national government just if they are lucky - but it’s something they have a right to and should expect”.
The EIS AGM runs from today until Saturday, in Aviemore. The union is providing updates here and on social media using the hashtag #EISAGM23.
