The SED memorandum on promotion in secondary schools removes some anomalies in the present system and provides a welcome acknowledgment of the fact that much more happens in a comprehensive school than simply classroom teaching.
But it is difficult to accept its continuance of the principle, already inherent in our promotion structure. that these duties deserve greater reward than teaching itself, or that the creation of 700 new promoted posts will produce contented teachers . . . The present financial rewards force all teachers to seek promotion even when they find satisfaction in doing a purely classroom job. The time is rapidly approaching when a teacher unpromoted by the age of 40 will be considered a failure.
* Renfrewshire had 3,417 pupils on part-time education in January, the Secretary of State, Mr Gordon Campbell, said in a written Commons answer last week. All but 28 were in secondary schools. Glasgow had 2,259, of whom 1,544 were in primary, and Lanarkshire had 288, 152 of whom were in primary.
* The raising of the school leaving age in 1972 could have “disastrous consequences in Scotland,” said Mr J.D. Pollock, rector of Mainholm Academy, Ayr, when he spoke to the local association of the EIS in Oban last Saturday. “In the institute we are convinced that the provision in respect of staff and accommodation is not yet adequate.”
* The present salary scales give many thousands of teachers salaries below the October 1970 level of average earnings for men, said Mr Robert McClement, general secretary of the Scottish Schoolmasters Association.
* Two of Edinburgh’s four-year secondaries - Craigroyston and Gracemount - are to be allowed to grow into six-year status, and a third - Niddrie Marischal - is to be allowed to introduce limited fifth-year courses.