‘There is no crisis’ insists Swinney as teachers go on the attack
●Education Secretary grilled on radio phone-in over workloads and low pay
John Swinney has insisted there is no “crisis in morale” in Scottish education as he faced a grilling from frontline teachers over punishing workloads and low pay.
The Education Secretary was told by one retiring head teacher that the profession is “haemorrhaging staff ” with questions raised over his ability to deal with the situation.
Anger over controversial primary one tests was also put to the Deputy First Minister as he endured an uncomfortable hour taking calls about the state of Scottish education system.
Mr Swinney played down the prospect of a strike over pay on the BBC Radio Scotland phone-in yesterday as schools around the country returned after the summer holidays.
Mr Swinney is Nicola Sturgeon’s most senior minister and was put in charge of education as she declared it would be the priority area she wanted to by “judged on” two years ago.
But he admitted there were “challenges” in the profession as he was grilled by one retiring primary head, identified as Susan, who has worked in teaching for the past 39 years.
“The number of teachers who are leaving – haemorrhaging out of the profession–I would like to know how many probationer teachers carry on and how many years they go into the profession,” she said.
“You have a real crisis in recruitment and retention and I don’t hear anything there that you’ve said this morning that would convince me that you have got a handle on this.”
She added: “The working time agreement for teachers is almost a joke. There’s no way teachers can do the work in the contracted hours in enough time, the morale is so
“The simple fact is, the workload cannot be overtaken within the theoretical 35 hour week”
LARRY FLANAGAN
low. The Education Secretary accepted that teaching is a “very, very busy and demanding life” and admitted he often gets “tough feedback” in discussions with teachers.
He said: “My door is very much open on this question to try to reduce the amount of bureaucratic burden that teachers feel they are facing.”
But he insisted: “I don’t think we have a crisis in morale. I think what we have got is a very challenging period in education where we have some staff shortages. The last vacancy survey said we were about 800 teachers short – about 1.5 per cent of the teaching contingent in Scotland.”
He said measures had been undertaken to attract new teachers including bursaries to attract professional people to switch careers and teach in the key science, technology and maths subjects.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan welcomed the education secretary’s recognition that workload and pay is a “significant issue.”
But he warned: “Urgent action needs to be taken to resolve these issues.
“The workload challenges teachers have been facing over the last few years have been excessive and despite promises from the Deputy First Minister, and others, workload continues to increase rather than decrease. The simple fact is, the workload cannot be overtaken within the theoretical 35 hour week and teachers are having to work 46-50 hour weeks.”
He added: “Recruitment and retention of teachers has become a significant challenge in Scotland and there needs to be a major move to ensure we recruit more highly qualified graduates into teaching.”
Teaching unions are currently
demanding a 10 per cent pay hike after years of freezes, but only 3 per cent is currently on the table prompting fears of strike action.
“I’m working very hard to ensure there’s an agreement and a resolution to teachers’ pay claim,” Mr Swinney said.
He also faced tough questions over controversial new national tests for youngsters, including five-year-olds in P1 which have met with growing opposition.
Standardised assessments were introduced at P1, P4, P7
and S3 last year to identify areas where youngsters are struggling at an earlier age.
One principal teacher from a school in the Highlands, named Tommy, told Swinney yesterday that primary school teachers are already intervening in a child’s education “consistently and constantly” as problems emerge.
“To pin an intervention to one particular assessment, it flies in the face of the Education Scotland advice on continuing assessment. I don’t understand the point that you make,” he added. “That’s your daily job – that’s what you do on a daily basis.”
But the reform had been widely called for, Mr Swinney said, because of a “general consensus” about an absence of data in the performance of young people and how to go about improving this.
“There was a need of us to have a much clearer understanding of the progress young people were making and the issues that had to be overcome to make sure they could fulfil their potential,” he said.
He again agreed to look again at the tests, but has made it clear that they won’t be axed.
There have been 578,000 tests carried out in the first year. But a campaign has launched to end the tests after recent claims that some youngsters had been left traumatised and in tears by the stress of the assessments. Ministers insist they should only last about 20 minutes and should not be done under stressful conditions.