As we highlight in the Council News in this edition of the SEJ, the recent agreement to end the SNCT workload dispute came after a period of sustained pressure on the Scottish Government and COSLA, following the EIS statutory industrial action ballot and advanced plans for a programme of Action Short of Strike (ASOS) and […]
The March meeting of EIS Council was held in unusual circumstances, with events happening elsewhere the main focus of everyone’s attention. As Council members met in Edinburgh, a short distance away, political leaders from COSLA were also meeting to discuss the draft agreement on workload and class contact time, which had been accepted by both […]
Welcome progress for Napier Lecturers in job cuts dispute Following a dispute over proposed job cuts, including potential compulsory redundancies, at Edinburgh Napier University, EIS-ULA members have now halted their programme of strike action. The suspension of action follows an agreement between the Edinburgh Napier EIS-ULA branch and the university, who will now work to […]
The new EIS President and Vice President have been confirmed. The next President will be current Vice-President Mark Smith (North Ayrshire). Mark has been a member of the EIS for 28 years. During this time, he has served on school committees as a staff representative and on the local executive. Over the last five years […]
The Dispute The dispute was called by the Teachers’ Side of the SNCT for two reasons: Significance of the EIS Ballot Result Over the month of February and early March, it was clear to EIS negotiators that the Scottish Government and COSLA were not really negotiating. They were waiting to see what the outcome of […]
As we highlighted in the previous edition of the SEJ, the EIS recently published its education manifesto for next month’s Scottish Parliament election. While the running of schools is devolved to local authority level, the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government play a key role in shaping education policy at a national level. With this in […]
The tragedy which occurred at Dunblane primary school on 13th March 1996, when 16 young children and their teacher were murdered, and many others wounded, remains firmly embedded in Scotland’s collective memory. While the Dunblane community has taken great pains to move on from the horror of that day, the victims of the tragedy cannot […]
Last year when Fife Council threatened to cut education budgets the local association of the EIS organised a public meeting to question councillors on the issue. We spent a lot of time advertising the event and contacting parents’ organisations but we were still anxious before the doors opened that anyone would turn up. We needn’t […]
A review, aimed at providing the Scottish Government with advice on future education reform priorities, will make recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth, at the end of March 2026. Launched in September 2025 and led by John Wilson, former headteacher of Broughton High School who was appointed as Independent Professional […]
EIS President Adam Sutcliffe provides a personal account of a recent trip with an international trade union delegation to the Middle East. Quite some time ago, the EIS Council agreed to support an Education International programme to fund training for Palestinian teachers through their union, the General Palestine Teachers’ Union (led by the indefatigable Saed […]
