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Are they being faithful with their promises?
Although based on a particularly popular piece of contemporary culture, the cover of this edition of the SEJ isn’t just a piece of festive fun.
Presented in a light-hearted way, there is a serious question behind the picture – is the Scottish Government being faithful to the promises that they made to Scotland’s teachers, pupils and the Scottish electorate when they pledged to reduce class contact time and recruit thousands of additional staff?
It’s a legitimate concern. Almost five years on from making those pledges, in their 2021 Holyrood election manifesto, the Scottish Government seem no closer to actually delivering these promises in our schools.
More than 56 months (or 240 weeks, or 1680 days) later and we are still waiting for any significant progress towards the delivery of these commitments.
Just last month, after all this time of dither and delay, the Scottish Government did, very belatedly, announce a set of ‘proposals’ on how they feel the commitment to reduce class contact time might progress.
But these proposals, such as they were, were lacking in detail and failed to address the concerns of teachers over a guarantee of more dedicated time for preparation and correction of student work as a critical way of reducing workload.
The handling of the announcement was particularly ham-fisted, with the government proposals being provided to the media before they had been shared with, or even mentioned at, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, the appropriate forum for discussing teachers’ terms and conditions.
Adding to the feeling that the Scottish Government was putting spin before substance, these light-weight proposals were boldly trumpeted as ‘a new national deal for teachers’, including a wholly unacceptable attempt to tie in the promised class contact reduction with a new 2-year pay agreement for teachers which had already been formally accepted by teaching unions.
As ever, the EIS is clear that pay and conditions are entirely distinct and separate issues, and will never be traded off, one for the other. This is particularly true in the case of a pay deal that has already been negotiated, signed and sealed, if not yet fully delivered into the pay packets of all teachers and with a degree of inflation protection in the form of a reopener clause to be agreed before the end of the year.
All of the recent political performativity left the distinct impression of a government attempting to look as though it was doing something, rather than actually doing something, on workload and class contact time.
While some of the suggestions in the government’s two-page paper that subsequently went to the SNCT for discussion may have merit, many questions are still unanswered around just how any of their proposals would work, how they would be resourced and, critically, what the government’s attitude is to the Teachers’ Side view on the use of the 90 minutes – namely that all of it must be allocated for preparation and correction, otherwise workload will be worse, not better.
This is a long-running saga of the Scottish Government’s own making. It was their decision to promise a reduction in maximum class contact time to 21 hours, and their decision to promise 3,500 additional teachers to support this ambition. Having made those promises to the electorate, and to teachers and pupils, they must now deliver them.
The Scottish Government will argue, with some legitimate cause, that local authorities and their umbrella group, COSLA, are equally to blame for the lack of progress. It is true that some additional funding has been provided to local authorities to support class contact reduction and the recruitment of more school staff.
But, as the money was not ring-fenced, local authorities have been able to spend this money elsewhere, and many have done so. It is for the politicians who have been elected to national and local government to thrash out their differences and work out how they will make good on their past promises.
It is the lack of progress on delivery of the class contact promise and associated workload reduction that led the EIS to open its statutory industrial action ballot on this issue. As we highlight in this edition, this ballot is still open and closes in a few weeks, on the 14th of January.
It is hugely important that every member who is eligible to vote in this ballot completes and returns their ballot paper by the closing date.
A vote for strike action and action short of strike is the best way to maximise the EIS’s leverage in the negotiations.
With an election looming, now is the time to step up the pressure on the politicians. Tackling excessive teacher workload by reducing class contact time must be a priority – now is the time to stand together to ensure that the promises made to teachers become promises kept for the benefit of Scottish education.
Season’s Greeting from the SEJ
As we hurtle towards the winter break, the SEJ would like to offer all our readers all the very best for the festive season, and a very Happy New Year when it comes. We hope that you will find time to relax and enjoy good times with family and friends during this period.
