Teachers have issued Scotland’s Education Secretary with a poor report card as secondary schools shut due to strike action.
Members of the NASUWT union gathered outside Shirley-Anne Somerville’s constituency office in Dunfermline this morning to urge her to do more to improve the current pay offer on the table.
Mike Corbett, NASUWT national official for Scotland, said the 5% being offered to teachers is not enough when inflation is over 10%.
Call for serious negotiations to end strike
Report cards handed in to Ms Somerville suggested her mathematical skills need improvement – Mr Corbett said a “5% pay offer when inflation is over 10% does not exactly add up”.
He said: “We are standing here six weeks after the last pay offer with no improved offer, despite government and employers saying they don’t want more teacher strikes.
“We want to get into some serious negotiations to try and end this dispute.”
Mr Corbett said the union is not suggesting teachers deserve more money than other council workers, but its job is to try to get the best deal for its members.
He hopes an improved pay offer may be on the table by the end of this week.
Some teachers choosing between ‘heating and eating’
One Fife secondary school teacher protesting at the constituency office said: “We want to let the SNP know that we are not happy with the offers we have been given.
“Our wages are not rising with inflation and we feel teachers shouldn’t have to choose between heating and eating – some teachers are.”
She said teachers wages ‘prop up’ the kids in school with many having to buy their own resources for children in classrooms.
She added: “Funding for schools is not good – we need more funding and it is the kids who are suffering.”
Ms Somerville has said she will leave “no stone unturned” to bring an end to the teacher strikes.
However, she also said some distance remained between the two sides in the pay dispute.
She told MSPs that “no-one wants to see strike action in our schools” but that compromise was necessary for a resolution.
