As the sovereign body of the EIS, the Annual General Meeting is always one of the key events of the educational calendar. This year, the event was in even sharper focus with the launch of a consultative industrial action ballot over teacher workload.

With more than four years having now passed since the current Scottish Government made a binding manifesto commitment to tackle teacher workload by reducing maximum class contact time, no meaningful progress has been made towards delivering that promise.

The launch of the consultative ballot is a timely reminder to the Scottish Government, and to local authority employers, that Scotland’s teachers fully expect this pledge to be delivered before the Scottish Parliament election next year.

Digital ballot papers have been emailed to all members eligible to vote in this important ballot, and the EIS Executive, Council and AGM urges you to vote Yes-Yes in support of strike action and action short of strike.

Tackling excessive workload was a recurring theme throughout this AGM, and this is reflected in this special AGM edition of the SEJ. You can keep up to date on all the key debates, and read extracts from the keynote speeches by the President and the General Secretary, in this edition.