Created on: 21 Dec 2023
The EIS has called upon the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities to commit to making teacher pay attractive to help ensure that talented graduates see teaching as a viable career option.
Official figures confirm that teacher numbers in Scotland’s schools have declined in each of the past two years, despite a pledge from the Scottish Government to recruit 3,500 additional teachers during this Parliament.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, "Scotland needs more teachers in our classrooms. We are still in the fairly early stages of education recovery following the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, which had a profound impact on many young people across the country.
"The persistent poverty-related attainment gap, the growing number of young people facing mental health challenges, the year-on-year increase in the number of young people with additional support needs, together with the rise in violent and aggressive behaviours in our schools, all require additional teaching staff in our classrooms if they are to be addressed successfully."
Ms Bradley continued, "Despite the Scottish Government’s pledge to deploy an additional 3,500 teachers in our schools over this parliamentary term, the number of teachers across Scotland has declined for the last two years. Not enough new teachers are coming into the profession, and increasing numbers of experienced teachers are leaving the profession early.
"While pay is not the only issue that impacts on teacher numbers, it is still an important factor in the recruitment and retention of highly-qualified graduates. With all the challenges that our schools currently face, and the ambitions that we hold around excellence and equity, we simply cannot afford not to attract new people into the profession or to lose qualified, experienced teachers to other professions where pay is higher, workload is less and work environments are safer."
Ms Bradley added, "The EIS Salaries Committee will meet soon to confirm the teachers’ pay claim that we will submit via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) later in January. That pay claim will be thoroughly evidence-based, reflecting the value of teachers, as well as the current cost of living and the serious decline in the real-terms value of teacher pay over the past decade and a half.
"With inflation still high and prices for essentials such as food, fuel and housing taking up an increased percentage of household budgets, it is vital that teacher pay takes account of these economic realities. Last year, Scotland’s teachers were forced to take their first programme of strike action over pay for four decades to secure a reasonable pay settlement after more than a year of waiting.
"We hope that lessons have been learned and that there will be less game-playing, obfuscation and stalling from local authorities and the Scottish Government this year. Scotland’s teachers deserve a fair pay settlement, and they deserve it to be delivered on time."