Is it wrong to want something better for the children of Scotland even when the politicians and capitalists who have run the economy into the ground say we can’t afford it? Greg Dempster of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland thinks so (TESS, June 19).
I moved the motion on class size at the EIS conference, so when Greg Dempster asks what planet I live on, I know it is a different one from him. In his world, cuts in the public sector are justified. Making children pay with their education for the greed and profligacy of bankers and politicians is OK. Perhaps that is why his organisation sits with the management side on the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers?
I know which planet I live on. It is one where people make promises - such as cutting class sizes - and keep them. It is one where unreasonable demands, such as implementing A Curriculum for Excellence on a wish and a prayer, are not made on teachers. Let’s imagine the 35-hour week is a reality, not an aspiration.
Mr Dempster, the only people having “unreasonable and unrealistic pressure” put on them are teachers and pupils. Think imaginatively and do something radical, scrap Trident or tax the rich, to fund education.
Andrew Fullwood, (EIS South Lanarkshire), Rodil Avenue, Glasgow.