UNION leaders have demanded that schools recruit an army of teachers to help education return full time next month – pointing to a “glaring demand” for more staff to be drafted in.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, has written to all Scottish councils, calling on officials to recruit the extra teachers needed to support a full return to education on August 11 – urging for heads of education to “think big in articulating the scale of resource required”.
Education Secretary John Swinney will deliver a statement to MSPs in Holyrood on Thursday to outline the Scottish Government’s plans for re-opening schools.
The Scottish Government has previously indicated that local authorities will be given additional resources "if required", to help schools re-open.
In his letter, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan has called for priority to be given to employing newly-qualified teachers and recent qualified teachers before consideration is given to former and retired teachers being drafted back into classrooms.
READ MORE: EIS union joins calls for 'complete transparency' over schools re-opening evidence
He said: “At the moment, there is intense discussion around the process of how schools will reopen in August and clearly that is a pressing matter which we all need to attend to. Beyond getting pupils back, however, lies an even bigger challenge about supporting their recovery from what will have been for many, indeed most, a traumatic experience.”
Mr Flanagan has previously warned MSPs about the widening of poverty-related disadvantage being exploited further by the Covid-19 lockdown – and the damage being done to the welfare of children.
He added: “Tackling all of these aspects will be a labour-intensive process as children will need counselling, support and nurturing. To this end we will need more teachers, more specialists, and more support services.”
READ MORE: EIS union warns over support for 'severely traumatised' pupils returning to school in August
Mr Flanagan has urged heads of education at Scottish local authorities to make the case for more resources to support education recovery.
He said: “We have unemployed NQTs, RQTs, teachers on supply lists and temporary contracts – all of whom are anxious about their employment prospects for next session when there is such a glaring demand for all of them to be utilised in our schools.
“The GTCS has identified thousands of retired or inactive teachers waiting in the wings to be deployed but before we even begin to consider this cohort, we need to employ the staff already there.
"Teachers make the difference – let’s get as many as we can into our schools."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel