The annual conference of the Educational Institute of Scotland finally took a historic decision, by 219 votes to 153, to affiliate to the STUC, a move it has balked at almost annually for the past six years.
Rose Galt, Glasgow, proposed the motion with a swipe against “red bogeymen and red herrings”. John Clark, Perthshire, thought he detected “political bias” among the supporters of the motion and advised against teachers bringing politics into the profession.
* The EIS president’s dinner heard from Gordon Campbell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, that there was a smaller proportion of pupils staying on at school than in most advanced countries - even England was ahead.
Mr Campbell was defending the decision to raise the school leaving age to 16 (Rosla) from 1972-73. But he was told by Thomas Jardine, the EIS president, that England was better able to cope with Rosla because more pupils stayed on at school voluntarily than in Scotland. That, he conceded, “might be a criticism of ourselves”.
* The annual meeting of the Scottish Schoolmasters’ Association called for an urgent review of teacher training. Nobody who supervised students in schools was satisfied with the arrangements, according to Norman King, vice-president. College staff were out of touch with schools - because they were never in schools. And the General Teaching Council review could not be impartial because of the number of college principals on that body.
* Education authorities might have to consider a promotions system involving annual reports on teachers, Edward Taylor, the under-secretary of state for education, said this week. The increase in the teaching force to 50,000 by 1975-76 meant promotion could no longer depend on “the judgment of large committees of laymen”.
tes scotland, june 18, 1971
