The continuing need to mitigate against the spread of Covid as more pupils returned to school was the main focus of discussions at the March meeting of EIS Council.

President elect Heather Hughes, reporting on behalf of the Executive Committee, highlighted that the EIS had been “continuing to advocate a cautious approach to pupils returning in order to reduce the risk of an increase in the spread of Covid.”

Ms Hughes updated Council on EIS campaigning around key safety mitigations – the Protect Education campaign – calling for vaccination for school staff, proper ventilation in schools and provision of medical grade masks to protect staff.

Ms Hughes also reported on the launch of the EIS Education Manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections – entitled For an Education led Recovery – which was officially launched on the morning of Council. See pp6-7 for more on the Manifesto.

A 2-day online AGM has been agreed for this year – a decision that was taken reluctantly, said Ms Hughes, “but one that was necessary in the circumstances.” The Intention is to have Motions at this year’s AGM, unlike the 2020 online AGM at which no Motions were debated.

General Secretary Larry Flanagan updated Council on the latest developments from the Covid Education Recovery Group (CERG), highlighting some positive news of a downward trend in hospitalisations and community infection levels across Scotland.

There were, however, many issues remaining to be addressed regarding the phased return to schools.

Mr Flanagan noted that, at the time, the R figure in Scotland was between 0.7 and 0.9, so very close to the 1.0 level that would indicate that the virus was out of control. He also noted that “one clear consequence of re-opening schools is a risk to increasing the R figure.”

The General Secretary reiterated that the EIS has repeatedly urged caution in the return to school, but said that “the First Minister’s announcement seemed to be based more on dates than data,” and has also created huge issues for schools and teachers.

The decision has heaped additional workload pressure onto teachers, said Mr Flanagan, and the EIS is very clear that “any teacher who is in school delivering face to face teaching cannot also be expected to deliver online learning” to a separate group of pupils.

Motions

Several Motions related to the Covid pandemic were passed by Council. Sonia Kordiak (Edinburgh) successfully called for the EIS to seek information from teacher trade unions in Australia and New Zealand about the Covid-19 elimination strategies adopted in these two countries and about the impact of these strategies on the delivery of education in these countries.

“The more information we have from colleagues across the world about how their countries are tackling COVID, the better informed and prepared we will be,” said Ms Kordiak.

Allan Crosbie (Edinburgh) was successful in a call for the EIS to investigate and report on arguments for and against a ‘Zero COVID’ strategy. Mr Crosbie said, “This Motion is about letting us, as a union, learn more about a Zero Covid strategy, with a view to developing our own policy on it.”

Mr Crosbie was then successful with a related Motion, calling on the EIS to investigate and report on the attitude of a variety of trade unions in Scotland and across the UK to ‘Zero COVID’.

In another Covid-related Motion, John Swinburne (Edinburgh), successfully urged the EIS to call on the Scottish Government to support calls for coronavirus vaccine production to be patent free worldwide. Vaccine manufacturers needed to, “Put humanity before greed, put people before profit”, said Mr Swinburne.

David Baxter (Dundee) was also successful in a Motion calling on the EIS to campaign on the recognition of Long Covid and its debilitating effects and in doing so, campaign to ensure that any absence relating to Long Covid should not affect sick pay entitlement. “I’m deeply concerned about the impact that long Covid is having on our members,” said Mr Baxter.

Pay update

Salaries Convener Des Morris updated Council on progress towards the 2021 teachers’ pay settlement, which is negotiated through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).

Mr Morris confirmed that a pay claim had been submitted in December, but that no official response had yet been received from the employers. Mr Morris indicated that this delay from COSLA in responding made it “unlikely that a pay settlement will be agreed before the due date of April 1st.” Public sector pay policy, announced by the UK government, is currently for 1% pay increases in the public sector for those earning more than £25K – though Scottish teacher pay is not strictly bound by this, as it is negotiated via the SNCT, said Mr Morris.