Unions warn Holyrood pressures have pushed teachers to the edge

Teachers are “at the end of their tether” from the pressures of remote learning, and the government’s decision to order inspectors to evaluate the quality of online teaching will make the situation worse, union leaders have warned.

Holyrood’s education committee heard from teaching unions that remote learning has “pushed a lot of teachers to the edge” amid criticism of the news Education Scotland would begin inspections.

MSPS were also told the longer schools were closed the less likely teachers would be able to effectively assess pupils’ performance and estimate grades in the absence of exams.

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said: “We ’ v e been inundated with members contacting us with what they believe is impossible demands being placed upon them.

“I just think we need to be realistic in what we expect of teachers. We need to continue the engagement of pupils in education, not tr y to continue as if everything was normal and expect the same outcomes.

“We h av e n’ t been normal since March, but we do need to have a breathing space in this to actually try to support and encourage teachers to keep doing the e xc e l l e n t job the y ’re doing, and not trying to undermine them at every o p p o r t u n i t y, which appears to be what teachers are reporting.”

Secondary school teacher and NASUWT union r e p r e s e n t at i v e Richard Bell said: “It really has taken a toll. They must be exhausted and demoralised at this stage, and potentially we are only at the beginning.”

Urging the government to try to recruit as many additional school staff as possible, the general secre tar y of the EIS teaching union, Larry Flanagan, said: “We still have members who have been seeking supply work across the country.

“If we’ ve got 2,000 teachers looking for work, there should be 2,000 employed as we need all hands on deck.”