The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Council advertises jobs with teachers set for strike action
Dundee City Council is advertising posts for a secondary school management shake-up which the city’s teachers are striking against.
The council is pressing ahead with a new faculty management plan in secondary schools – despite teachers taking action on June 22.
The local authority is also making arrangements for Dundee’s secondaries on strike day, prioritising provision for vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers.
A spokesman said the arrangements are being finalised. Faculties will bring together “families” of subjects headed by curriculum leaders to replace the current system, at the loss of 110 principal teachers.
Schools are moving to the new system from August. Jobs are being advertised for faculty heads, with job descriptions based on those in place at other Scottish local authorities.
Stewart Hunter, council children and families convener, said: “Individual head teachers, in consultation with their teachers and in partnership with senior officers, are creating a faculty structure which best supports their school’s curriculum, leadership and management requirements within delegated staffing budgets.
“Faculty structures will not mean any reduction in teacher FTE (full-time equivalent) in any school. Quite the opposite, our staffing levels will be enhanced.”
However, teaching union EIS claims the restructure would disrupt pupils’ learning and result in fewer experienced teachers, less dedicated support and an increase in teachers’ workload and stress.
Members at Dundee EIS feel so strongly against the new system that 88% of them voted in favour of industrial action.
David Baxter, local EIS representative, said: “There is a very simple solution to avoid strike – take faculties off the table. If the council’s strategy is to ride out the strike, it shows that they haven’t been listening.
“We have asked to work with the council on this and they have taken the decision to go ahead.
“They have offered nothing to come out of dispute – nothing to avoid strike. It’s politicians telling class teachers that they know what is going on in the classroom better than them, and essentially telling teachers how to run education.”
He added this week’s upcoming AGM for the EIS, held in Dundee, is likely to
be the last time the event takes place in the city as a direct result of the dispute. After the summer holidays, the union is looking to hold another vote on the removal of “good will” of teachers.
If successful, it would mean teachers would no
longer carry out extra duties such as supervising playgrounds on breaks or running extra-curricular clubs.
Plans to introduce the faculty system in Dundee were agreed by councillors three years ago and have since been introduced in
most council areas in Scotland.
Councillor Hunter said: “Over the past three years, council officers have met regularly with local trade union representatives to discuss, and consult on, the implementation of faculty structures.”