Teachers tell of low morale and lack of guidance

TAYSIDE SECONDARY teachers’ morale is at an alltime low with staff working up to 60 hours a week to cope with the demands of Curriculum for Excellence, it has been claimed.

One Courier Country teacher said the “endless paper trail” and lack of guidance from the Scottish Qualifications Authority had colleagues considering leaving the profession altogether as a result.

The teacher said: “I have never known morale so low in my school and teachers from other schools and across authorities are saying the same.

“Staff who have been teachers for decades and have seen many curriculum changes are saying that this is the worst transition they have known.

“The workload has increased dramatically for us this year. Staff feel like they are simply coping on a day to day basis and never really get on top of things. “I know a young, enthusiastic, dedicated teacher who felt they had no option but to leave the secondary education system if they were to have any chance of a work life balance.”

The teacher said the demands of the new system meant that they were working “way over” their 35-hour week.

She said: “One colleague estimated she is regularly working 50/60 hour weeks. I have run extracurricular activities every year but the extra demands on my time this year has meant all extra activities for me have stopped. This is a real shame but I feel I have no choice.”

The teacher said the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) had created problems by its “very late” release of final decisions on exams. She said: “This has meant prelims supplied by companies like P & N have been incorrect and have not given pupils a real idea of what the final exam will be like.

“This has also meant the books created in place of past paper books are incorrect. This makes exam preparation difficult for pupils.

“There is a seemingly endless paper trail with teachers having to record many outcomes for every pupil. This is not helped by the fact there is a real lack of guidance from the SQA about what evidence is acceptable for outcomes. There are limited examples.

“There is also a lack of exemplification in terms of how work should be graded. The SQA argue that they did not want to create false answers which I understand, but for some pieces of work they could have re-graded standard grade or intermediate 2 work to give teachers some idea of what a pass actually looks like.

“This makes it difficult for pupils to understand the standard of work expected from them and makes kes marking and moderation extremely difficult.”

The teacher and her colleagues said that they had tried hard to think of the benefits of the new system.

She said: “The only real one I think is the fact there will be less of a jump between National 5 and Higher than there was between Standard Grade and Higher.”

Teachers now find it find the time needed to cope with their workload.