In what looks certain to be a general election year, the EIS is campaigning for enhanced funding for Scottish education and more resources for schools to allow them to meet the needs of all young people across the country.

The EIS launched its Stand Up for Quality Education campaign last year, calling for better funding and more resources for our schools. We will continue to press on our campaign priorities in the year ahead, calling on the Scottish Government and local authorities to provide our schools with the resources they need to deliver for Scotland’s young people.

With a general election set to be held within the next year, the EIS will be pressing all political parties to make firm commitments on how they will navigate existing constitutional arrangements to provide a better deal for Scottish education, its learners and its teaching professionals.

Investing in schools is investing in our young people and in the future of our country

The Scottish budget statement at the end of last year did not deliver much that was new for Scottish education and actually included some cuts to pupil health and wellbeing and support for care experienced young people. This will only serve to exacerbate existing challenges.

Most of the funding that was pledged had been previously announced, and there was no significant additional funding for schools to reduce class sizes and bring in many more teachers at a time when more resources are urgently needed to enable education recovery, provide appropriate support for the ever-increasing number of young people with additional support needs, stem the rising tide of violent and aggressive behaviours in our schools, and to deliver Scottish Government promises on reducing class-contact time to help lighten the excessive workload burdens on our teachers.

While education is a devolved issue, the EIS will be placing enhanced support for education as a vital public service at the centre of our campaigning work in the run up to the general election. Public services, including our education system have been squeezed for many years, with deep cuts to funding, resources, and staffing levels. This must be reversed to deliver an education system that can meet the needs of all our young people.

The pupils in our schools today are the citizens and workforce of tomorrow, and we must invest in their education. Investing in schools is investing in our young people and in the future of our country – and we will be reminding local and national government, and all political parties, of their obligations to support Scottish education, and the young people, and ultimately, our whole society, that it serves.

Teacher pay must be attractive to encourage talented graduates into classrooms

The EIS has called upon the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities to commit to making teacher pay attractive to help ensure that talented graduates see teaching as a viable career option. Official figures confirm that teacher numbers in Scotland’s schools have declined in each of the past two years, despite a pledge from the Scottish Government to recruit 3,500 additional teachers during this Parliament.

Scotland needs more teachers in our classrooms. We are still in the fairly early stages of education recovery following the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, which had a profound impact on many young people across the country. The persistent poverty-related attainment gap, the growing number of young people facing mental health challenges, the year-on-year increase in the number of young people with additional support needs, together with the rise in violent and aggressive behaviours in our schools, all require additional teaching staff in our classrooms if they are to be addressed successfully.

Despite the Scottish Government’s pledge to deploy an additional 3,500 teachers in our schools over this parliamentary term, the number of teachers across Scotland has declined for the last two years. Not enough new teachers are coming into the profession, and increasing numbers of experienced teachers are leaving the profession early.

Despite the Scottish Government’s pledge to deploy an additional 3,500 teachers in our schools over this parliamentary term, the number of teachers across Scotland has declined for the last two years.

While pay is not the only issue that impacts on teacher numbers, it is still an important factor in the recruitment and retention of highly-qualified graduates. With all the challenges that our schools currently face, and the ambitions that we hold around excellence and equity, we simply cannot afford not to attract new people into the profession or to lose qualified, experienced teachers to other professions where pay is higher, workload is less and work environments are safer.

The EIS Salaries Committee met recently to agree the teachers’ 2024-2025 pay claim that was subsequently submitted via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) in January. The pay claim, which calls for a 6.5% undifferentiated pay increase at all grades and scale points, is thoroughly evidence-based, reflecting the value of teachers, as well as the current cost of living and the substantial decline in the real-terms value of teacher pay over the past decade and a half.

With inflation still high and prices for essentials such as food, fuel and housing taking up an increased percentage of household budgets, it is vital that teacher pay takes account of these economic realities. Prior to the last pay agreement, Scotland’s teachers were forced to take their first programme of strike action over pay for four decades to secure a reasonable settlement after more than a year of waiting.

The EIS hopes that lessons have been learned and that there will be less game-playing, obfuscation and stalling from local authorities and the Scottish Government this year. Scotland’s teachers deserve a fair pay settlement, and they deserve it to be delivered on time as scheduled on the 1st of August.