Strathclyde torpedoes SJNC
Strathclyde has mounted a devastating challenge to the teachers’ pay bargaining machinery, leaving other local authorities in disarray. An emergency meeting of the management side of the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee has been called. The latest crisis facing the SJNC stems from Strathclyde’s decision to ask the Court of Session to declare that the national agreement on pay increases for senior promoted staff, which took effect from April, was illegal because part of it went beyond the SJNC’s powers.
Pupils `marking time’
Pupils in S2 are continuing to underperform, according to the government’s Assessment of Achievement Programme, which backs the inspectorate’s contention that pupils are “marking time” as they move from primary into secondary. Performance in science is “below what might reasonably be expected”.
GTC disciplinary power fight
The Scottish Office education department has given an amber light to demands from the General Teaching Council for an extension to its disciplinary powers. The GTC has for some time wanted to refine what it regards as a blunt instrument. The council can strike a teacher from the register, take no action, or defer judgement for up to two years.
Scientists fear survival of subject
Physics teachers have expressed mounting concern about the survival of their subject in the face of impending curriculum changes driven by 5-14 environmental studies and the Howie committee’s proposals for S5-6. During an abrasive session at the Institute of Physics’ Scottish conference at Stirling University, Professor John Howie admitted that the eight-period allocation for science in the proposed ScotBac was open to negotiation.
Wounds of war fester
For 13-year-old Margareta, who lived through last year’s siege of Vukovar huddled in a basement with her mother, maths consisted - for three long months - of counting shells fired on her from the Serbian side of the Danube. Children like Margaret now have problems adapting to school life. The war forced 65,000 children and 6,000 teachers in Croatia to leave their homes.
