With less than a year to go until the next Scottish Parliament election, the country’s political parties are already in campaign mode. While the official election period is not yet underway, the candidates are gearing up and the jockeying for position has begun.

Key to any party’s hopes of election success are the promises that they make to the electorate in their manifesto. These set out their priorities for the future, and form an important part of the commitment that each party makes to voters.

Education is always a key political battleground and, prior to the last election, the issue of soaring teacher workload was to the fore of the debate. Pledging to address the issue, the SNP – who would, of course, subsequently form the Scottish Government administration, made a manifesto commitment to reduce teachers’ maximum class contact time by 1.5 hours per week.

Where are we on cutting teacher workload?

Much has subsequently been said, by both COSLA and the Scottish Government, regarding their commitment to work towards cutting teacher workload by reducing weekly class contact time “at pace”.
However, as we enter the fifth year since the Scottish Government’s original manifesto commitment to reduce weekly class contact time was made, it remains the case that COSLA and the Scottish Government need to match words with definitive action.

The pace towards the delivery by the Scottish Government has been glacial. Only recently, after more than four years of waiting, did COSLA produce a paper on the issue of reducing class contact time. This was not the promised plan for delivery of the commitment, but a series of questions and statements without any firm plan of action.

The proposals from COSLA also fail to take a position on how the promised reduction in class contact time will be used. Teachers, and the EIS, are very clear that this 1.5 hours must be given over to teachers for preparation and correction, a vital element of teachers’ work. Currently, far too much preparation and correction happens outwith the teachers’ working week, with the average teacher working an extra 11 hours over their contractual commitment, each and every week, in order to attempt to keep on top of their workload.

The worrying truth about teacher workload

According to the national member survey conducted by the EIS earlier this year, one in three teachers have sought help from their GP due to work related stress.

Workload has also been cited as the most common reason for teachers leaving the profession. Alongside this, there are significant numbers of fully qualified teachers either looking for work or on temporary contacts.

It is completely unacceptable that levels of work-related stress for teachers are so high, and workload is causing teachers to leave the profession. It is similarly unacceptable that so many teachers, who are needed within the system to deliver a reduction in weekly class contact time, remain without permanent employment.

Reducing weekly class contact time to 21 hours, and using the resulting 1.5 hours to increase “preparation and correction” time, is the only significant opportunity currently available to the teaching profession to make inroads towards addressing unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable workload.

It’s time for the promise to be kept

Having waited more than four years for any sign of the promised cut in contact time, teachers’ patience has run out. With workload continuing to soar, the EIS recently balloted members on potential industrial action over this issue. Teachers do not consider industrial action lightly, but are being worn down by persistent excessive workload and are growing increasingly angry at the inaction of their employers and government on this issue. It’s time for action on teacher workload, and it’s time for the promise made on class contact time to be kept.

Consultative Ballot result sent a clear message

Scotland’s teachers used the recent EIS consultative ballot to send a very strong and very clear message to the Scottish Government and local authority employers: deliver on your commitments to tackle teacher workload, or we will move to industrial action. The ballot displayed strong support for both Action Short of Strike (92% in favour) and strike action (83% in favour), if a long-awaited promise to cut teachers’ class contact time is not delivered in the near future.

The result made clear that the patience of teachers is at an end, and they expect the promise made, prior to the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, to be delivered as a matter of urgency.

Commenting on the ballot result, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “Teachers across Scotland have sent a very clear message to their employers and the Scottish Government that they must now deliver on the promise to tackle excessive teacher workload. We are now in the fifth year since the pledge was made to reduce teachers’ maximum class contact time by 1.5 hours per week, to 21 hours. Teachers have shown a tremendous amount of patience, even under extreme workload stress, while those responsible for delivering this commitment have dithered and delayed, with no tangible progress having yet been made on delivery.”

Should very quick progress not be made on delivery of the class contact time commitment, the EIS will move swiftly to a statutory ballot for industrial action.

Ms Bradley continued, “This ballot result makes clear to both the Scottish Government and COSLA that Scotland’s teachers and the EIS fully expect proper negotiations on the class contact reduction commitment to move ahead at pace, leading to an agreement and a timetable for delivery of the reduction to 21 hours class contact. The EIS and Scotland’s teachers are also very clear that the 1.5 hours reduction in class contact must be allocated to teachers for preparation and correction, as a real and meaningful step to reducing teacher workload.”

Ms Bradley added, “Should very quick progress not be made on delivery of the class contact time commitment, the EIS will move swiftly to a statutory ballot for industrial action. Throughout the past four years, while the Scottish Government and COSLA have continued to prevaricate over delivery of the commitment to tackle workload, Scotland’s teachers have continued to suffer severe pressure and stress as a result of their workload burdens. It is long past time for delivery of the pledge that was made to Scotland’s teachers, pupils and the electorate – teacher workload must be reduced, starting with swift delivery of the reduction in class contact hours to a maximum of 21 per week.”

At the time of writing, COSLA and the Scottish Government were yet to produce any firm plans for moving ahead the 21 hours commitment. In the event that no such plans are forthcoming, the EIS has been very clear that a statutory ballot for industrial action would be the next inevitable step.