COUNCILS HAVE made it clear that not all class teachers will be expected to take on extra duties or the additional 70 hours a year under the “extended professional contract”. Changed conditions will apply to new teachers and to promoted staff.
The 11-point basic salary scale would be shortened to five points with more generous increments. Salaries for unpromoted teachers would range from pound;14,500 to pound;23,000 by April next year, against the current scale of pound;13,206 to pound;21,954. An additional above-inflation rise is promised for all staff in April 2001.
Teachers would have to be successfully appraised to win each increment, with a more rigorous national standard for those who choose the extended contract under which they would earn a maximum of pound;25,500 by next April, rising to a possible pound;26,520 the following year, assuming a 4 per cent salary increase in 2001.
The employers say the proposed rises, together with other measures such as a commitment to reduce classes up to S2 to 30 pupils, equalising class contact time in primary and secondary, and scrapping line management posts up to assistant heads, were a major contribution to dealing with pay and workload concerns.
The salary hikes would be for a 35-hour basic week, whose precise composition would be negotiated within each school.
The additional 70 hours is the equivalent of an extra one and three-quarter hours a week, the authorities claim. They say teachers will henceforth be rewarded for the extra time they put in anyway, allowing them to concentrate on the objectives of raising attainment and promoting social inclusion.
The pound;100 million cost over the next three years will be paid for by a pound;70 million handout from the Scottish Office plus pound;15 million for classroom assistants, pound;10 million saved from scrapping the national absence cover requirements and pound;5 million saved from the shake-up in promoted posts.
The total bill reaches pound;210 million when the costs of the normal annual pay round are added.
