A decline in Scotland’s teacher numbers makes it even more important that a healthy pay rise is delivered quickly, the country’s biggest teaching union has said.
National data released in December showed that teacher numbers had fallen for the second year in a row, despite the Scottish government’s promise to increase them by 3,500 during the 2021-26 Parliament.
Today, the EIS teaching union said that myriad factors making the job more difficult - including poverty, behaviour and the Covid pandemic’s ongoing impact - have given impetus to its campaigning on pay.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley, who described education’s post-pandemic recovery as “still in the fairly early stages”, said: “The persistent poverty-related attainment gap, the growing number of young people facing mental health challenges, the year-on-year increase in the number of young people with additional support needs, together with the rise in violent and aggressive behaviours in our schools, all require additional teaching staff in our classrooms if they are to be addressed successfully.”
Ms Bradley added: “Not enough new teachers are coming into the profession, and increasing numbers of experienced teachers are leaving the profession early. While pay is not the only issue that impacts on teacher numbers, it is still an important factor in the recruitment and retention of highly qualified graduates.
“With all the challenges that our schools currently face, and the ambitions that we hold around excellence and equity, we simply cannot afford not to attract new people into the profession or to lose qualified, experienced teachers to other professions where pay is higher, workload is less and work environments are safer.”
The EIS salaries committee will meet soon to confirm the pay claim to be submitted this month via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers.
Ms Bradley said it would be “thoroughly evidence based, reflecting the value of teachers, as well as the current cost of living and the serious decline in the real-terms value of teacher pay over the past decade and a half”.
In the 2022-23 school year, teachers in Scotland took national strike action over pay for the first time since the mid 1980s, starting in November 2022. That ultimately led to a pay deal in March 2023, amounting to what the EIS highlighted as a 14.6 per cent increase in salary for most teachers by January 2024.
Ms Bradley said: “We hope that lessons have been learned and that there will be less game-playing, obfuscation and stalling from local authorities and the Scottish government this year.”
In recent months, however, local authorities have repeatedly highlighted the difficult financial situations they face. In November, a series of strikes involving non-teaching school staff came to an end after a pay offer was accepted by public-sector trade unions.
Meanwhile, figures show that, since 2018, more than 1,300 teachers have left teaching within the first five years of their career.
Responding to a freedom-of-information request from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the General Teaching Council for Scotland said 1,337 teachers had left the register within five years. Last year, 338 people - the highest figure since 2018 - left the profession.
Lib Dem education spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “Those [newly qualified teachers] who have completed their probation aren’t being offered stable contracts, with many turning to casual work or supply lists instead.
“Teachers who are just starting out on their careers are feeling demoralised, disillusioned and disincentivised.”
He added: “We would make teaching a more attractive career path by bringing back principal teachers for key subjects, halting teacher cuts, [ensuring] stable contracts and boosting in-class support.”
Today, councils’ representative body Cosla insisted there was no scope for “meaningful” public-sector pay rises.
A Cosla spokesperson said: “Within schools over the past year, councils have striven to maintain teacher numbers appropriate to each setting. Crucially, the pupil-teacher ratio across Scotland is unchanged from previous years.
“Cosla is acutely aware of employees’ pay and conditions interests across all of our workforces. We will continue to work hard to secure adequate funding for local government so that we can maintain a well motivated, effective and efficient workforce capable of continuing to deliver all our vital services.”
The spokesperson stressed, however, that the draft 2024-25 Budget on 19 December was “not a good one for our communities or the people who deliver our essential frontline services”.
They added: “It will mean job losses - jobs that support families and deliver vital services that make a positive difference to people’s lives.
“Sadly, the Budget as it stands, leaves nothing for meaningful pay rises in 2024-25 so we would call on the Scottish government to look again, so that our workforce can get the pay rise they deserve next year.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The current pay deal is the most generous pay deal for teachers since 2001, even surpassing the landmark pay deal of 2018-21.
“The deal has a cumulative value of 14.6 per cent and will mean an overall increase of more than £6,100 over two years for the majority of classroom teachers.”
The spokesperson added: “The 2024-25 Budget further supports teachers with an investment of £390 million to protect teacher numbers and fund the teacher pay deal.”
