wpa406e4a5.png

Prospect of teachers’ industrial action against Comhairle          26/2/13

The islands’ branch of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS has warned it will ballot teachers over industrial action after fears Comhairle will harm quality of education in light of budget cuts.

The EIS warns that “drastic cuts” - requiring the introduction of e-learning, the move towards an asymmetric week and a reduction in specialist teaching provision in primary schools - will have a detrimental effect on the delivery of quality education to the young people.

The union says it has “grave concerns” over implementing e-learning in secondary schools.  

Local Association President Kate MacDonald stated: “There is a place for e-learning as an enhancement to the current educational provision, but as a replacement it is clearly not workable.

“The proposal for the asymmetric week as it stands will actually be a cost, rather than a saving, with extension to the pupil week and the use of outside agencies in pupil supervision.  

“Delivering an effective curriculum in primary without specialist input will greatly dilute the excellent standard of teaching currently enjoyed by our pupils.

“We have requested an urgent meeting with the education chiefs at the earliest possible date to clarify the detail as transparency regarding job security and proposed time scales is needed.”

“Accurate information is now essential in this time of uncertainty and insecurity and we will be pressing the education department for this.

“Balloting our members in order to gauge appetite for industrial action will be our next step if we cannot find a way forward that protects both quality of education and the livelihood of teachers.”

Local Association Secretary, Richard Fraser said: “Our aim is to provide the best possible education for the pupils of the Western Isles.  Learning is a dialogue that requires pupils and teachers to engage and interact with one another.  

“E-learning forces us back to an age where education is about a teacher standing in front of the class talking to the pupils and the pupils having a limited opportunity to engage. “

Mr Fraser added: “There is no example of this working in the UK and no precedent for us to follow.

“There is no way that e-learning will be implemented without enormous costs and now that it has been passed I can see the costs spiraling out of control and any real savings will be consumed.”

He highlighted: “The asymmetric week involves a longer pupil week and more people involved in their education and that is going to add costs rather than reduce them.  

“We have been let down by the elected members who ignored the EIS warnings and have voted this in without even checking if these savings are actually attainable.”