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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMs Hughes updated Council on EIS campaigning around key safety mitigations \u2013 the Protect Education campaign \u2013 calling for vaccination for school staff, proper ventilation in schools and provision of medical grade masks to protect staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Hughes also reported on the launch of the EIS Education Manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections \u2013 entitled For an Education led Recovery \u2013 which was officially launched on the morning of Council. See pp6-7 for more on the Manifesto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 2-day online AGM has been agreed for this year \u2013 a decision that was taken reluctantly, said Ms Hughes, \u201cbut one that was necessary in the circumstances.\u201d The Intention is to have Motions at this year\u2019s AGM, unlike the 2020 online AGM at which no Motions were debated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were, however, many issues remaining to be addressed regarding the phased return to schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cone clear consequence of re-opening schools is a risk to increasing the R figure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The General Secretary reiterated that the EIS has repeatedly urged caution in the return to school, but said that \u201cthe First Minister\u2019s announcement seemed to be based more on dates than data,\u201d and has also created huge issues for schools and teachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision has heaped additional workload pressure onto teachers, said Mr Flanagan, and the EIS is very clear that \u201cany teacher who is in school delivering face to face teaching cannot also be expected to deliver online learning\u201d to a separate group of pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Motions <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe more information we have from colleagues across the world about how their countries are tackling COVID, the better informed and prepared we will be,\u201d said Ms Kordiak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allan Crosbie (Edinburgh) was successful in a call for the EIS to investigate and report on arguments for and against a \u2018Zero COVID\u2019 strategy. Mr Crosbie said, \u201cThis 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2018Zero COVID\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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, \u201cPut humanity before greed, put people before profit\u201d, said Mr Swinburne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned about the impact that long Covid is having on our members,\u201d said Mr Baxter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pay update <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Salaries Convener Des Morris updated Council on progress towards the 2021 teachers\u2019 pay settlement, which is negotiated through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT). <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cunlikely that a pay settlement will be agreed before the due date of April 1st.\u201d Public sector pay policy, announced by the UK government, is currently for 1% pay increases in the public sector for those earning more than \u00a325K \u2013 though Scottish teacher pay is not strictly bound by this, as it is negotiated via the SNCT, said Mr Morris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u201ccontinuing to advocate a cautious approach to pupils returning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3434,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions\/3434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sej.org.uk\/apr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/08\/des.jpg\")
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