The negotiating sub-committee of the Scottish Teachers’ Salaries Committee met in Edinburgh last Friday, and the teachers’ representatives rejected the management side’s offer of 7 per cent to run for at least a year from April 1, 1971. The teachers want 20 per cent, to run from January 1. The convener of the teachers’ panel, Mr Robert Beattie, said the offer did not cover the projected rise in the cost of living, and was particularly disappointing at a time when a bold gesture was needed to improve recruitment.
* Peeblesshire education committee are to reopen the question of amalgamating three one-teacher schools, the director of education told parents at one of the schools last week. The schools involved are Kirkurd, Lamancha, and Newlands.
* The Scottish Business School, which begins its inaugural programme of courses in management education this October, will start life as the biggest in Britain. This week, the three contributing universities, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde, launched a draft prospectus listing 66 separate courses, most of which are already running in some form.
Dr Robert Smith, principal of Heriot-Watt University, said this week that his university would have been happy, and still would be, to consider cooperation in the Scottish Business School venture. “But we were excluded,” he said, “and the exclusion was not of our making. We did not opt out.”
* There must be explicit teaching of morality, say Aberdeenshire’s moral education committee in a report now being issued to teachers in the county.
* A campaign to discourage Glasgow schoolchildren from smoking, backed by Pounds 250,000 if necessary, has been advocated by Councillor Robin Johnston. Sutherland health committee agreed this week that the county education committee should be asked to impress upon pupils that smoking is dangerous.
TES SCOTLAND, January 15, 1971
