The general secretary of Scotland’s largest teaching union has said that a dispute over the promise to reduce class-contact time now “appears inevitable”, after a deadline this week for “meaningful progress” was missed.
The Scottish government pledged to reduce class-contact time for teachers by 90 minutes a week in its 2021 Scottish Parliament election manifesto.
However, progress has been described by teaching unions as “glacial” and now a deadline of noon on Monday 3 February to come forward with “concrete proposals” has been missed.
The EIS teaching union says the deadline set by the teachers’ panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), passed without any offer to reduce class-contact time being made by the government and local authorities’ body Cosla.
EIS general secretary, Andrea Bradley hit out at the failure to meet the deadline “despite public assurances…after four years of stalling”.
When the teachers’ side of the tripartite SNCT (which also comprises local and national government) set its deadline, the government promised that “firm proposals” would be brought forward.
In December, in the wake of agreeing a new deal with councils - including an extra £69 million for additional support needs staff - education secretary Jenny Gilruth also said she wanted to “rapidly bring forward a joint proposal to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to make progress at pace” on class-contact time.
‘Wholly avoidable dispute’
Today, Ms Bradley said: “With Scotland’s teachers continuing to be burdened by unsustainable workload and to engage in numerous hours of unpaid time each week on planning, preparing and providing feedback on learning, this failure now makes a wholly avoidable dispute appear inevitable.”
She said that the EIS salaries committee would meet later today to form its response, before a full meeting of the SNCT teachers’ panel tomorrow.
Ms Bradley added: “In light of the failure of the Scottish government and Cosla to put words into action and make real their commitment to meaningful progress on class-contact time, and the fact that the patience of Scotland’s teachers on this issue has run out, it is difficult to imagine any other outcome from these deliberations than dispute declaration.”
The Scottish government and Cosla have been contacted for comment.
Today’s comments from the EIS come two days after members of the union in Glasgow voted heavily in favour of strike action over education cuts in the city.
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