Education Emergency in Glasgow
1. Council
This AGM condemns Glasgow City Council’s planned cut of 450 teachers’ posts over the next three years, starting with 172 teachers’ posts to go this August, and also deplores the previous loss of 125 teaching posts in Glasgow.
This AGM, therefore, instructs Council to raise this as a matter of urgency with Scottish Government, in light of their stated policy of protecting teachers numbers.
This AGM also instructs Council to inform COSLA that any moves to replicate these cuts in the other 31 local authorities will be met with a robust response, up to and including the declaration of disputes and industrial action.
Emergency motions are a rare occurrence at the EIS AGM, being deployed only for the most urgent of issues. This year, an emergency motion opposing the deep cuts to education and teaching posts in Glasgow was the first motion to be discussed at AGM.
Moving the motion, Equality Convener Nicola Fisher said, “There are more cuts to come, this is just the start. We have already seen our education service decimated in recent years. It cannot be business as usual – if we are prepared to prop up a failing system, they will be more than happy to let us. It may well be that children will have to be sent home due to a lack of cover when teachers are ill – it is the last thing that we want to happen, but it may become necessary to ensure the safety of young people where there is no teacher cover. This fight isn’t just for us in Glasgow, it is coming soon to a local association near you. We need to send a strong message – if you come for the jobs of teachers, you will have an almighty fight on your hands.”
Education Convener, Susan Quinn, seconding, said, “As Nicola has said, if they win in Glasgow, they will come after your members in other local associations too. We offer our thanks to parent groups, who we have worked very closely with on this campaign. No political party in Glasgow is able to stand up and say that these cuts will not have a harmful impact on education and on young people. We will fight for the jobs of our members and for our young people.
Incoming President Allan Crosbie, supporting, said, “Our newest teachers, who are also generally our youngest teachers and mainly young women, are particularly under threat. Teachers recently out of their probation year, or even 3,4,5 years into their careers, are suffering real precarity of employment on a succession of temporary fixed-term contracts. What’s happening in Glasgow isn’t just damaging, it’s dangerous.”
Aisling Gallagher (Glasgow), added, “We ask for your support against those who would sacrifice the futures of young people in Glasgow to balance their budget.”
That support was duly given by AGM, with a unanimous vote in favour of the motion.