This year’s Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) annual meeting in Dundee included a strong focus on education, including the largest ever EIS delegation, led by President Paula McEwan. More than 30 EIS members and employees were present at the Caird Hall, ensuring that education issues were prominent and the voice of the EIS was heard throughout the three days of congress.

President Paula McEwan, leader of the EIS delegation, moved a major composite motion on work-related violence, calling on the STUC to re-affirm that all workers should have the right to be, and feel, safe in their workplaces.

The motion highlighted that the latest ONS figures for violence at work recorded 688,000 incidences in one year, and also referenced the recent EIS national branch survey on violence and aggression in schools which found that 85% of schools experience daily or weekly work-related violence against teachers, with a worrying rise of misogynistic behaviour in male pupils.

Addressing congress, Ms McEwan said, “Work shouldn’t hurt. But we know it can and it does. Almost one in four workers experience violence and aggression in their workplace. Our research has showed that misogyny in our schools is on the increase and the government knows that.

“But this is a societal issue playing out in our schools and as a movement we have to tackle it at source. We call for training and urge that training is proportionate to the need. Colleagues, we have to support this motion because one of our members being hurt at work is one too many.”

General Secretary Andrea Bradley moved an EIS motion on poverty in education, re-affirming that poverty has a lasting, damaging impact on the future life chances of children. The motion called for more investment in education and professional services that support pupils to overcome poverty-related barriers, additional investment in early-years education, and more investment to fund more teachers, pupil support assistants and allied professionals to give every child a quality, equitable education.

We should be furious that the issue of child poverty is appearing once again on this agenda.

Moving the motion, Ms Bradley said, “Here we are, in 2024, in one of the richest countries in the world, once again debating the impact of poverty on children. Thousands of our children go to school in the morning with nothing in their stomachs. Who wouldn’t be dismayed to think about how the lack of food, clothes and warmth and the stigma that comes from all that which stops young people from achieving. Poverty is not a fact of life, it is a calculated political choice. We should be furious that the issue of child poverty is appearing once again on this agenda.”

Ms Bradley added, “Poverty ruins childhoods and wrecks the life chances of young people because poverty doesn’t just hold kids back in p1 or p7, or when they sit their exams at secondary school or college, it blights their entire adulthood. Education is a critical cornerstone in the fight against this unjust paradigm. You don’t fight poverty by not expanding free school meals to all pupils. You don’t fight poverty by failing to reduce class sizes. Failing to support pupils with ASN. Cuts to courses. Loss of learning support for mainly working class students. The Scottish Government needs to invest properly at quality education at every stage. We urge congress to stay alongside us on this critical fight.”

President-Elect Allan Crosbie spoke in support on a major composite motion entitled ‘Raising taxes to deliver for Scotland’. The motion focussed on how tax reform and the use of progressive taxation could generate billions of additional pounds of revenue for investment in Scotland’s public services.

Referencing the STUC report ‘Raising taxes to deliver for Scotland’, published last year, Mr Crosbie told congress, “The STUC commissioned report exposes the lie that the Scottish Parliament budget is fixed. After a decade of compromising with austerity, we are not compromising any more. It is time to take money from the richest and invest in our public services. It falls to us in the trade union movement to demand change.”

President Paula McEwan seconded a composite motion on hunger, the right to food and free school meals. Amongst a wide range of other measures, the motion calls for the exertion of maximum pressure on all political parties in the Scottish Parliament to ensure that ‘free school meals for all’ is implemented and extended to include all young people from nursery to the end of secondary within the shortest possible timescale.

“Why are we still fighting to have our children fed? The EIS is proud to support the STUC women’s committee campaign food for thought. Our children should not be hungry in school,” said Ms McEwan.

Education Convener Susan Quinn was a frequent visitor to the podium during congress, including moving an emergency motion in opposition to Glasgow’s planned deep education cuts.

Moving the emergency motion, Ms Quinn said, “These cuts will result in 172 teacher posts being deleted this year. Over the three years of the budget that has been passed, 450 teacher posts will be deleted. This is against the backdrop of the Scottish Government having a commitment to closing the poverty related attainment gap and saying they would increase teacher numbers in Scotland by 3500 during the term of this Parliament. If this is happening in Glasgow, it will soon happen everywhere else.”

Ms Quinn also seconded a motion on valuing music education. Highlighting the many opportunities that access to music offers young people, Ms Quinn said, “Music can be a means to engage pupils in education who might otherwise struggle. Music within our education system enhances access to literacy, can answer the question in how you solve the problem of engaging pupils who are disengaged from real life. We know the power of music to deliver a message and our children deserve the right to develop that understanding.”

The Vice-Convener of the EIS Salaries Committee, Mick Dolan, seconded a motion on securing fair and equal pay in public services. Highlighting the strength of collective trade union action in securing fair pay, Mr Dolan said, “Our pay campaign in 2017 culminated in over 30,000 members on the streets of Glasgow, and led to a pay rise totalling over 12%. Fair pay is not just about keeping pace with inflation, it is also about protecting our public services.”

we must work to increase the number of opportunities in the FE sector.

EIS delegate Harry Kilgour seconded a motion on reducing Scotland’s skills gap. Referring to the need for high-quality vocational education and training, Mr Kilgour said, “Access to apprenticeships must be based on sound quality assured provision and not based on cost cutting or lowering of standards. Further Education can offer high quality provision that could enhance the availability and range of apprenticeship courses via links with career services, schools and employers. To manage this we must work to increase the number of opportunities in the FE sector.”

Neil Anderson, from Glasgow EIS, spoke in support of a motion on education funding, which called for national funding levels to be increased significantly to enable local authorities and schools to receive the funding which they need.

“Anyone informed about the state of education in Scotland at the moment would agree it’s not good. We already have staffing shortages, but we also have a crisis in recruitment and the reason for that is getting a job in your probationary year is almost impossible. We need an increase in education funding nationwide.”

Jehan Al-Azzawi, from Edinburgh EIS, spoke in support of a motion on political attacks on university staff. Ms Al-Azzawi said, “We are speaking in support of this motion because teachers are also being smeared and reported for either speaking their political opinions or seeking to teach about the conflict in Palestine in schools. Schools and teachers have a responsibility to address this conflict and teach understanding and the ability to disagree agreeably over political issues. We have the right to speak out on matters of social justice. The attacks against us are a deliberate attempt to silence us.”.