John Swinney has used his latest open letter to the profession to address the biggest debate in Scottish education at the moment: teacher pay.

The EIS teaching union is currently balloting members over the government’s offer of a 3 per cent rise across the board, with further rises dependent on the teacher’s stage of career.

They have urged teachers to use the ballot to reject the offer, calling it “divisive” because not all teachers would benefit to the same extent.

Swinney says he is in “no doubt” over the strength of feeling within the sector - perhaps unsurprisingly, given the 30,000 Scottish teachers who marched in Glasgow last month in the fight for a universal 10 per cent pay rise.

However, he argues in his monthly column for Tes Scotland that the current deal on the table from the government and local authorities body Cosla is “strong and fair”.

“From the very start,” he writes, “we have been clear with the teaching unions that we want to deliver a strong deal for teachers, but it must also be affordable.”

The education secretary also says that pay is “only one factor in career fulfilment”, and outlines what the government has been doing in other areas, such as reducing workload, career progression, and reforming the education system.

He urges teachers to give the pay offer “serious consideration as we encourage representatives to return to the negotiating table”.

Swinney must be hoping this letter goes down better than the previous government missive trying to sell the benefits of the pay deal. The letter, which was sent to all teachers, was derided as “misleading”, “duplicitous” and “outrageous” by the EIS. EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said the basic figures are accurate but that a table indicating salary rises on the main-grade scale “creates a false impression of the proposed new salaries for teachers”.