Union boss calls for firm commitments on education recovery
THE recent Annual General Meeting of the EIS concluded with General Secretary Larry Flanagan’s strong call for a strong commitment to the education sector from the Scottish Government.
Mr Flanagan used his speech to commend Scotland’s education professionals for their hard work during the past year, and also to demand continued support from the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and local authorities to enable education recovery post-covid.
Addressing the virtual AGM, Mr Flanagan said: “I wish to start by expressing a huge thank you to our 61,232 members – which is the highest membership figure I have reported in my tenure as General Secretary – for the phenomenal job you have done and continue to do for Scotland’s children, young people and students.
“Your dedication, your selfless sense of duty, and above all your sheer professionalism have been veritable lifeboats in these turbulent times for our young people.
“The importance of the teacher, the importance of school and education, to our society and to the common weal, have rarely been clearer.”
Mr Flanagan continued: “As we look ahead to an education led recovery, at the start of a new Parliament, I would urge politicians of all parties to stop using education as a political football and to unite behind delivering the resources that teachers and lecturers need to address the needs of students.
“Education recovery should be, requires to be, a national effort – focussed on the health and wellbeing of children and providing the resources needed across all the education sectors.”
“In truth, there has been a paucity of investment in terms of education recovery – 1,400 teachers may sound impressive, and it is welcome, but it’s less than half a teacher per school, so we need greater vision and greater commitment; we are only in the foothills of what is required.”
He concluded: “In our education manifesto we put the need for more teachers, in permanent posts, front and centre of our demands and, perhaps a measure of our success, all the parties to varying degrees committed to additional staffing – we need to see that delivered and delivered quickly.”