TEACHERS have stepped back from the brink over strike plans to disrupt Scotland's controversial new school exams – but threatened a walk-out over pensions and public sector cuts instead.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) yesterday agreed to a future campaign of industrial action with other trade unions to defend jobs and safeguard terms and conditions.
The union's annual general meeting in Dundee also voted to continue its battle against pension cuts, which has already seen the EIS and other unions take one-day strike action.
However, delegates voted against demanding a delay in the roll-out of new National 4 and National 5 qualifications backed up with a ballot on industrial action, which could have derailed the process. The move is a victory for the EIS ruling council which argued a recent support package to help deliver the qualifications – which already gives schools the right to delay – should be given a chance to succeed.
The Scottish Government, which agreed the £3.5 million deal with the EIS, also welcomed the decision. During a passionate debate, delegates spelled out the difficulties facing classroom teachers across Scotland.
Brian McGovern, secretary of the Renfrewshire local association of the EIS, said teachers were "walking into an abyss".
"I cannot believe why people think the problems will be solved with £3.5m. The problems are still there," he said. "We should have a delay. There are thousands and thousands of children depending on this. The future of Scotland depends on this."
Charles McKinnon, from the Glasgow local association, described the rescue package as "tokenistic" and accused Education Secretary Michael Russell of "political bullying".
Arguing individual schools were in a weak position when pushing for a delay, he added: "We are in an emergency situation and we need to back it up with industrial action."
However, Susan Quinn, the EIS vice-president, argued individual departments and schools which needed more time should be negotiating a delay with councils. "I sympathise with the concerns, but we have achieved a support package which meets much of what we were looking for," she said.
In his maiden speech to the agm, new EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan also insisted the union's focus should be on making the Curriculum for Excellence support package work. But speaking on pensions, he said Mr Russell "cannot hide behind the coat-tails of some Eton toffs at Westminster".
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "We are committed to public sector pensions which are affordable, sustainable and fair to public sector workers and the communities they serve."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article