The TESS Archive - 5 February 1982

The month the Belfast factory producing DeLorean cars was put into receivership, and the European Court of Human Rights ruled that teachers who caned or belted children against parents’ wishes were in breach of the Human Rights Convention

3rd February 2012, 12:00am

Tes Editorial

Pay offer could be linked to contract

- Soundings among local authorities this week suggest that Scottish teachers will be unlikely to get a pay rise much above the government’s 4 per cent limit for the public sector. This will embitter teacher unions, already suspicious of what they see as unhealthily close contacts between the management sides in Scotland and England.

Secondary intake to colleges may fall to 500 by 1985

- The government’s drastic pruning of the college of education system could mean the secondary intake in 1985-86 for all seven colleges will be less than for Jordanhill alone this session. A consultation paper from the Scottish Education Department suggests cutting the secondary intake from 1,350 this session to 1,000 in 1982-83, and to 500 by 1985-86 (Jordanhill’s intake of secondary trainees this year is 565.)

Christ and Krishna on the curriculum

- Candidates for the new Ordinary grade examination in religious education, to be introduced in 1984, will have to choose one of the three main religious traditions as well as Christianity, on which to be examined: Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The bulk of the marks will be awarded for the formal exam paper. Of five questions to be answered, three will be from the section on Christianity.

Cosla to renew protest over clothing grants

- The burden on local authorities of providing clothing grants for needy pupils is worsening, Cosla’s education committee heard. In October, a TESS survey revealed that spending on school clothing had rocketed from pound;122,700 to pound;829,000 in 12 Scottish education authorities, since the 1980 Social Security Act introduced legally defined entitlements and removed discretion from social security offices to make exceptional-need payments to needy families.

EIS tells teachers to ask for the sack before retiring

- Teachers going for early retirement who will not be replaced should ask the employing authority to sack them, the EIS has advised. Mr Robert Hodge, the EIS’s accountant, has written to regional executives pointing out a number of cases where teachers had lost the chance to claim redundancy because they had accepted early retirement and resigned voluntarily.