We congratulate Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, who has emerged as president of, ahem, the Education International Pan-European Structure, incorporating the European Trade Union Committee for Education. We can’t wait to see the headed notepaper.
The news appears to mean that Smith is the second Scottish president of European education for EI which, when it was the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession, was led for a while in Europe by Smith’s EIS predecessor but one, John Pollock.
Smith’s tenure is for three years. So, with weekend meetings, that may not go down well at one of his favourite haunts, the Almondvale home of Livingston FC, which needs all the spectators it can get. He may even have to miss the occasional meeting of the EIS executive council - as, no doubt, it will miss him.
