Nic to teachers: Tell it like it is.. the good & bad
Sturgeon wants to hear what’s wrong in classes
THE First Minister yesterday asked teachers to tell her how they feel about their job “whether that is good or bad”.
Nicola Sturgeon’s call followed damaging claims that teachers are being “strong-armed to keep their mouths shut”.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson seized on an open letter to Education Secretary John Swinney, printed in the Record yesterday, from a teacher who said the SNP Government don’t get “how bad things are”.
The teacher said she was writing anonymously for fear of disciplinary reprisals from her local authority.
At First Minister’s Questions, Davidson said: “We’re talking about a teacher who is an SNP voter.
“Yet she now fears she isn’t being listened to and has to speak out under the cloak of anonymity in order to avoid being stamped on.”
In her letter, the teacher also expressed exasperation that challenging pupils are now routinely being taught in normal classes without the resources needed to help them and enable the class to learn together.
She added that it is “fairly common” for teachers to be assaulted “by children whose needs cannot be met due to the inadequate level of funding”.
Sturgeon insisted teachers and other public servants can raise concerns with her and her ministers and stressed that it is “unacceptable” for councils to use the threat of disciplinary procedures to prevent staff speaking out.
Sturgeon said: “Teachers should be free to contact me as First Minister, the Deputy First Minister as Education Secretary, or any member of my Government.
“Let me issue this message to teachers or any public sector worker – tell the Government how you feel about your job and public services, whether that is good or bad.
“Let me be clear to teachers that they can come and raise anything they want with the Government.
“And let me be clear to every single local authority of every party administration across the country, that it is unacceptable to say to any teacher they will be disciplined for doing so.
“I’ve made that clear.”