Nationalist MSP blames media for SNP’s failure to tackle education
‘Insufficient teachers to fill vacant posts’ ‘It’s getting worse rather than better’
A NATIONALIST MSP is set to claim ‘negative media coverage’ has led to a slump in morale in schools – as a new survey reveals teachers feel ‘overworked, underpaid and underappreciated’.
Yesterday, SNP ministers were accused of having their ‘head in the sand’ after a poll revealed 86 per cent of teachers say their workload has increased during the past year, while a third claim it has ‘increased significantly’.
Despite the results published by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union, MSP Rona Mackay will today use parliamentary time to claim that ‘negative media coverage’ is behind a slump in teacher morale.
She is set to ask Education Secretary John Swinney what impact he ‘considers negative media coverage of the education system could have on pupils and teachers’.
Official figures show there are now 4,000 fewer teachers than when the SNP came to power, while salaries have lost 16 per cent of their value in recent years.
Teachers have previously raised concerns over soaring workloads created by the Scottish Government’s introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence.
Last night, Scottish Conservative education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘With such a pressure on staffing levels in schools thanks to the SNP’s terrible workforce planning, it’s no surprise to see these disappointing results.
‘There are insufficient teachers to fill the vacant posts and our existing teachers can’t cope effectively with all the demands made upon them in our classrooms. The SNP has no one to blame but itself for this mess.’
While 86 per cent of respondents to the EIS survey claimed that their workload had increased in the past year, 33 per cent said this had ‘significantly increased’.
Nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of teachers said that due to issues within the industry they would not recommend the job as a career choice to others.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, said: ‘The findings indicate that the pressures on teachers are excessive and growing... fewer than half of those surveyed would currently recommend teaching as a career choice – this is far worse than in our previous survey.’
Mr Flanagan added: ‘The results of this survey highlight that teachers increasingly feel overworked, underpaid and underappreciated.’
The EIS also published a number of responses from teachers with some claiming that the increased workload was affecting their health, while one teacher said they had ‘no time for doing the work that really needs doing... like marking and preparing... because of all the unnecessary accountability paperwork’.
Another said: ‘We are getting too many “new initiatives” without negotiation, no resources, and management expect that we will work whatever number of hours are required to do the work.’ Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott said: ‘Teachers believe that their workload is rising, not falling. We have had a year of assurances from the Scottish Government that they are tackling this major problem but teachers say it is getting worse rather than better.’
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘Teachers deserve a government that is focused on education and driving up standards. It is time John Swin- ney and the SNP listened to the EIS and got back to the day job.’
Last night, Mr Swinney claimed the Scottish Government was ‘absolutely committed’ to freeing up teachers to teach and insisted he was working to reduce workloads.
He added: ‘As agreed with the EIS and others, we are removing mandatory unit assessments for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.
‘We have also issued a definitive statement that clearly sets out, for all teachers, what they should and should not be asked to do and reviewed demands placed on schools by local authorities in relation to Curriculum for Excellence.’
Stephen Daisley – Page 16
9. To ask the Scottish Government what impact it considers negative media coverage of the education system could have on pupils and teachers. Rona Mackay