What is on the agenda for teachers at the EIS AGM 2026?

The very first education motion concerns curricular reform, which is likely to become an increasingly prominent issue in the coming years. Teachers are calling for specific and additional in-service days to be introduced to allow the profession to fully engage with any reforms, and for the process itself (known as the Curriculum Improvement Cycle or CIC) be made more equitable by ensuring that teachers from all sectors and areas are able to contribute. The motion would also commit the union to continued campaigning to “declutter the curriculum” in order to reduce workload – expect plenty more to come on that one.

The second education motion concerns provision for pupils with additional support needs (ASN). It “reaffirms the EIS’ commitment to inclusive education and specifically the presumption of mainstreaming”, but also notes the need for ring-fenced funding and more specialist provision. It also says that reductions in class sizes and contact time are necessary, and highlights the need for better professional development opportunities for teachers themselves.

Motion 6 calls for clarification of the legal consequences for teachers if they do or do not physically intervene with pupils, following the passage of the Restraint and Seclusion in Schools (Scotland) Bill.

There are also education motions related to AI in education, the use of online learning for pupils, behaviour in classrooms, in-school truanting, cuts to non-teaching staff, workload associated with the actions of Qualifications Scotland, teachers’ access to printers being limited in schools, the banning of mobile phones in schools, and more.

Other notable motions from across the conference include a calls for a review of the Distant Islands Allowance, consideration of how flexible working could apply to teachers, the employment implications of the new law on outdoor residential trips for pupils, and the increasing ‘administrative and bureaucratic demands placed on teachers’.

READ MORE

• Exam board under fire over 'highly misleading' evidence to key Holyrood committee
• Phone‑free schools: will Scotland’s mobile ban really make classrooms safer?
• 'Mediocre is not good enough': expert says teachers needs a knowledge-rich curriculum

But when you stand back and look across the board, you realise that the over-riding issue is the same as it has been for years: workload.

Various motions make direct or indirect reference to the need to tackle this issue, and the new education secretary has also inherited a major problem that has a direct bearing on the matter.

In its 2021 manifesto, the SNP promised to reduce teachers’ class contact time by ninety minutes per week, bringing country closer to levels seen in other countries, including those regarded as ‘high performing’.

The party completely failed to deliver on this pledge, much to the outrage of the teaching profession.

In the run up to the recent election, the SNP faced the nightmare prospect of school strikes causing chaos just as they asked the public to give them their votes.

The prospect of shuttered schools and frustrated parents was avoided at the eleventh hour after Jenny Gilruth conceded that the Scottish Government would fully fund the reduction in contact time – but the total amount to be spent has not been specified because, in typical fashion, it hasn’t yet been calculated.

Put simply, Jenny Gilruth signed a blank cheque, and now Mairi McAllan – the new Cabinet Secretary who will be addressing the conference on Thursday evening – has to find somewhere to cash it.

How many teachers will be needed to cut contact time across the board? We still don’t know.

The deal that has been agreed will see teachers in primary and special schools benefit from reduced contact time by August 2027, but secondary school teachers will have to wait until at least 2029 – and even that timeframe assumes agreements that are not yet in place.

The EIS strongly backs that deal, but the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) has already criticised the arrangement and suggested that its members should be financially compensated during the period in which they have higher contact time than colleagues in primary and special schools. That particular dispute could open up all sorts of issues, especially because it is normal in many countries for primary and secondary teachers to have differing levels not just of contact time, but also of salary.

Another key driver of teacher workload is the ongoing ASN crisis, and there is little sign of much progress in this area.

Official stats now show that 43% of all pupils have some form of registered additional need, each of which has direct workload implications for teachers. In some schools, such as those in more deprived areas, the figure will be much higher, with well over half of pupils needing extra help and support. As numerous pieces of analysis have shown, the Scottish Government and councils have never properly planned for or resourced the huge increase in ASN rates, leaving teachers to carry this ever-increasing burden largely on their own. That is very obviously not sustainable.

Another key issue to be raised at the conference, and one which Ms McAllan will also have to confront, is the matter of teachers’ health and safety at work.

One of two fringe events will focus on ‘Health & Safety and ASN’, with the event set up to “consider ways that Branches and Local Associations can use a health & safety approach to organise and campaign for increased ASN resources locally.”

This could create a particularly tricky problem for the Scottish Government and councils, because it suggests that teachers may begin to explore healthy and safety legislation as an avenue to secure more resources and specific forms of action in relation to additional support needs provision.

The same tactic could potentially be used to help teachers address the related issue of increased violence, aggression and misogyny in classrooms, which many believe the government and local authorities have failed to properly address. It is not uncommon to hear teachers talking about levels of abuse that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, and criticising those in charge for taking inadequate action in response.

There is perhaps a feeling that teachers have exhausted the normal campaigning avenues to have their concerns addressed, leaving them willing to consider this rather more unconventional route. The nightmare scenario for those in charge is that educators begin raising actions arguing that ASN support levels, or the approach to behaviour management, or the existence of an unacceptably hostile environment, are threatening their health and safety as an employee.

Quite where that particular rabbit hole would end is anyone’s guess.