EIS manifesto 2017 council elections

STANDING UP FOR SCOTTISH EDUCATION

Council Elections 2017

STANDING UP FOR SCOTTISH EDUCATION www.eis.org.uk

STANDING UP FOR SCOTTISH EDUCATION • Invest in our children’s future • Give children a sound start in Nurseries • Promote our Primaries • Support our Secondaries • Meet Additional Support Needs • Support Scotland’s Teachers • Promote social justice • Tackle the impact of poverty on attainment • Stand up for Scottish Education • Challenge austerity • End public sector pay restraint

What the EIS stands for: As we approach local Council elections, it is important that Education is centre stage in terms of the political debate. This document outlines key EIS policies and principles and we would encourage teachers, parents, and voters to use it as a tool to question candidates and political parties on their educational priorities.

Schools are key to local communities. It is important, therefore, that they are responsive to local needs and demands and that they are well resourced to deliver high quality educational experiences for young people and their families.

Larry Flanagan General Secretary

The EIS believes strongly in a democratically accountable comprehensive school system which provides opportunities for all and which seeks to tackle the inequalities which exist in too many communities.

Scottish Education is a high performing system with significant strengths, although we should recognise that challenges remain. In meeting those challenges, we need to ensure that we are recruiting high quality graduates into the profession, remunerating them appropriately, and making sure that they have the tools needed to do the job.

This will mean an increased commitment to resource Education services adequately. It also means taking effective action to challenge excessive workload which is damaging teaching and learning in the classroom.

The EIS has no party-political links and would never endorse one party over another; we are not neutral, however, in recognising the importance of Education to pupils, parents, and local communities.

The EIS believes in standing up for Scottish Education.

Use your vote to do the same.

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Invest in our children’s future Education in Scotland is seen as a societal good – it supports the concept of a “common weal”a concern for community and for social justice.

Accordingly, the EIS believes that equality of opportunity, fairness to all and equity of access and provision must be essential aspects of Scottish Education.

The impact of poverty and deprivation in limiting pupil achievement and attainment is well evidenced and tackling this disadvantage is an absolute priority for the EIS (and should be for Councils, also).

It underpins all the key policies in this manifesto.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Increase resources targeted at tackling social deprivation zz Reduce class sizes to support more individualised learning zz Expand free school meals to all primary pupils zz Ensure initiatives such as GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) are fully resourced.

Clearly, action is required outside of schools to tackle the scourge of poverty in society but schools can and do make a difference, where they are supported. Resources and funding to reduce the attainment gap are essential.

We would argue that investing in the classroom, where teaching and learning take place, is the most effective strategy to adopt.

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Give children a sound start in Nurseries Disadvantage sets in early. By the time children begin formal schooling a significant gap already exists, in terms of their learning, between children from poorer and more affluent backgrounds. One key element in addressing this is for Councils to ensure that all children have access to quality nursery education, as part of a comprehensive and publicly funded pre-5 service. In particular, the benefit of ensuring meaningful interaction with a GTCS registered teacher has been evidenced clearly.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Stop cutting nursery teacher posts zz Ensure that all children have high quality interaction with a GTCS registered teacher zz Ring fence resources for nursery education and pre-5 services.

CfE is predicated on a 3-18 curriculum.

We believe that pre-school children should have guaranteed minimum and meaningful access to a teacher during all stages of their early learning.

“There has been a 29% reduction in the number of GTCS-registered teachers employed in Early Learning and Childcare Centres over the last 10 years.�

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Make time for teaching Promote our Primaries Primary teachers are multi-specialists, dealing with all aspects of a very broad curriculum. Curriculum for Excellence promised a decluttering of that curriculum to allow more space and time for teaching and learning but this is not the experience of our members.

Councils need to tackle workload and bureaucracy, if teachers are to be “freed-up” to teach.

The EIS remains firmly opposed to national testing and will not accept the return of a target setting, league table approach which has been shown to entrench disadvantage. We firmly believe that all assessment must be linked to teaching and learning, and that includes the use of standardised testing by Local Authorities.

In particular we would argue that approaches such as testing whole cohorts at given times of the year is counter-productive and is more likely to entrench rather than close the attainment gap.

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Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Support de-cluttering of the primary curriculum to reduce bureaucracy and allow more time for learning zz Reject the misuse of standardised testing in all its forms zz Say “No” to the return of league tables zz Ensure that all assessment supports teaching and learning zz Support parental involvement in children’s education.

STANDING UP FOR SCOTTISH EDUCATION

Make time for teaching Support our Secondaries Secondary schools have been swamped by workload and assessment pressures, generated primarily by the new SQA Qualification framework. The EIS industrial action success has brought about what we hope to be significant change. The laudable aims of CfE reform – creating more time for teaching; maintaining breadth across the senior phase including space for vocational education; and supporting deeper learning – have all been marginalised in the implementation process.

Councils need to ensure the early principles of CfE are realised, to guarantee all young people full access to qualifications.

Across S1-S3, the Broad General Education faces many of the same issues as Primary schools: “paper chasing”, excessive tracking and assessment, workload pressure and increasing class sizes.

Local Authorities need to provide better support to schools to tackle bureaucracy and to cut excessive teacher workload.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Support a sustained commitment to reducing class size to a maximum of 20 pupils, which would have a significant and positive impact on the education experience of our children and young people and help to reduce the workload of teachers zz Commit to the introduction of a minimum national staffing standard as a mechanism to reduce class sizes and ensure equity of provision across the country zz Make time available for meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers and lecturers zz Protect and expand current teacher numbers to support excellence in education.

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Meet Additional Support Needs Additional Support Needs provision in Scotland is under severe pressure, both in terms of specific services and the resourcing of the “presumption of mainstreaming.”

Specialist ASN staff numbers have reduced by 730 FTE since 2010, whilst the number of pupils with recorded needs has increased!

In mainstream schools, many learners with a range of support needs are not being catered for appropriately, as a result of austerity cuts, leading to a poorer learning experience for them, and often for their peers.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Address the under-funding and lack of resources for ASN provision in schools zz Reverse the cuts in specialist ASN teaching numbers and pupil-support staff zz Resource mainstream inclusion so that vulnerable young people are properly supported.

Local authorities should end “mainstreaming” on the cheap, and fully fund additional support provision.

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Support Scotland’s Teachers The health and wellbeing of those working within Scottish Education is essential for its success. Recruitment of the teachers and lecturers of tomorrow will depend on how potential recruits perceive the teachers and lecturers of today to be valued and supported. Already worrying signs are emerging around potential teacher shortages.

Stress caused by excessive workload, poor management and pupil indiscipline is the greatest risk that teachers face to good health.

A key element in tackling workload is to ensure that enough teachers are employed. Cutting teacher numbers, as some Councils have proposed, will not improve our education service Protecting and expanding teacher numbers should be a commitment for every council.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz A sustained commitment to reducing class size to a maximum of 20 pupils would have a significant and positive impact on the education experience of our children and young people and help to reduce the workload of teachers zz A minimum national staffing standard should be introduced as a mechanism to reduce class sizes and ensure equity of provision across the country zz Time must be made available for meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers and lecturers.

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Promote social justice Scottish Education is predicated on promoting social justice and challenging inequalities – the GTCS standards for teaching explicitly state these aims in its statement of values.

We need to ensure that the way our schools and colleges operate reflects these worthy ambitions. In particular, at a time when the plight of refugees is prominent in public discourse we need to ensure that our Education system is prepared to welcome refugees and support refugee children.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Invest in English as an Additional Language services zz Welcome refugee children into our schools zz Support schools in their promotion of social justice and the rejection of all forms of discrimination zz Implement “poverty-proofing” measures to ensure all young people have a fair chance to succeed in education zz Support for children from migrant communities and for refugees and asylum seekers zz Oppose the imposition of the Prevent Duty on local authorities, schools, colleges and universities, in particular the mandatory training requirements imposed on teachers and lecturers. We believe the Prevent Duty encourages islamophobia, discrimination and racism.

Pics: Angela Catlin / www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk

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Tackle the impact of poverty on attainment The EIS has long campaigned against the blight of poverty on young people’s educational attainment and fully supports the closing of the attainment gap.

The recently announced Pupil Equity Fund is therefore welcome new money to support meeting this challenge. This money must be ring fenced for new work and not substituted for cuts in other budgets.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Ensure that PEF is not used to cover cuts elsewhere zz Support schools in administering funds to avoid new workload and bureaucracy

Whilst the EIS is not opposed in principle to additional funds being directed to schools and being controlled, in spending terms, at an establishment level, this should not create additional workload or administrative burdens for schools or result in in a transfer of administrative functions from local authorities.

zz Establish school Finance Committees to deliver collective decision making and accountability

The EIS believes that decisions about the spending of this money should be collective ones involving teachers and others, rather than solely being Heads and would support the establishment of Finance Committees in each school to oversee expenditure and ensure that there is appropriate accountability for all spending.

zz Honour current LNCT and SNCT agreements.

zz Remain as the employer of any additional staff funded through new money

The role of the local authority as employer is crucial in terms of potential employment of additional staff to ensure that the rights of employees are protected and that LNCT and SNCT agreements are adhered to.

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Stand up for Scottish Education Scotland has a strong and high performing education system. Whilst challenges clearly remain, politicians need to avoid creating a “narrative of failure” which does a disservice to the hard work of pupils and students and of their teachers and lecturers.

The EIS submission to the Scottish Government’s Governance Review made a number of key points: • Firstly, we recognised the important role that Councils play in relation to delivering local accountability, and we believe that to be a strength of our system which should be retained and indeed developed.The EIS rejects completely the “Academy” model of education introduced by the UK Government in England

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Support Scottish education and those who work in it zz Celebrate Learner success zz Defend, support and enhance Scotland’s comprehensive system zz Develop policies which prioritise learning, equality and equity zz Ensure that local democratic control is retained, valued and developed to be as inclusive as possible.

• We also believe that Local Authorities should remain as the employer and that existing negotiating mechanisms need to be continued • If greater support for school establishments can be delivered that would be welcome but the EIS view is that change for change’s sake would be an unacceptable diversion from the key challenge of delivering high quality education.

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Challenge austerity The EIS primarily represents teachers and lecturers, but we recognise and value the roles of a broad range of other professionals and workers across the Education sector such as school librarians, classroom assistants and pre-5 workers. We believe that all funding for Education should be ring fenced by Scottish Government to protect it from the impact of austerity cuts.

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz Ring fence Education service funding zz Increase resources and reverse and reject austerity budgets.

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End public sector pay restraint Scottish Teachers, like other public sector workers, have suffered from years of austerity driven pay restraint.

Teacher recruitment in some subjects is already becoming a challenge as graduates see other less stressful jobs offering better financial rewards. Don’t turn a concern into a crisis!

Actions: Scottish Councils should: zz End pay restraint.

Local Authorities, through their national body COSLA, are the employers in the tripartite Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers. They, along with Scottish Government, need to realise that continued pay restraint is damaging Scottish Education.

Pay restraint, combined with increases in national insurance, detrimental changes to pensions, and now rising inflation, has meant a real-terms pay cut for most teachers. Add in the well publicised excessive workload pressures and teaching becomes a less attractive option for new graduates.

But if we wish to see our Education system improve, we need to be able to attract the best candidates into teaching.

It is teachers who make a difference to the lives of our children – investing in them is an investment in the future.

Salaries are seldom the main reason for graduates choosing teaching as a career but that doesn’t mean that pay and conditions are unimportant!

The EIS has a simple message which is that Teachers need a pay rise!

After years of austerity-driven wage restraint, teachers need a fairer pay deal.

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Find out more: www.eis.org.uk

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STANDING UP FOR SCOTTISH EDUCATION The EIS, representing over 80% of Scotland’s teachers and lecturers, has been standing up for Scottish Education since 1847.

We will continue to do so.

We invite you to join us...

Use your vote for education

Printed and published by The Educational Institute of Scotland 46 Moray Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BH, April 2017