SSTA 80th Annual Congress
Stirling Court Hotel, Stirling
Friday 9th May 2025
Presidential Address: Stuart Hunter
Introduction
Distinguished guests, sister professional associations from these islands, Past Presidents and to all of our delegates from districts and areas of Scotland, welcome to our 80th Annual Congress. Eighty One Years ago, a number of Secondary teachers left the EIS to form the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, an association dedicated to being the voice of secondary teachers, that dedication has been strictly adhered to and continues to this day.
At our congress over the next 2 days, we will hear a number of motions being debated that originate from you, members of the SSTA, dealing with a variety of issues that directly impact on the day job of teaching at all levels in our schools.
These last 2 years as President of this association, I have had the incredible privilege of attending the meetings of all of our committees, worked with the members of Executive and Council. It has been an enormous learning experience to listen to the passion and desire of all our colleagues who only want the best for our members. It is my hope and desire that my address today will bring into focus the issues that you have highlighted at these meetings, to express the anger and frustration that we face when dealing with certain bodies as part of our day job.
Ultimately, as President, I see it as my role to be your voice, the voice of Scotland’s secondary teachers, whether that be teachers in the classroom, ASN staff, Pupil Support staff, Guidance teachers, Principal teachers, Faculty Heads, Head Teachers and their leadership team.
With this in mind, you will note that our strapline for the coming year is:
Teachers: The Heart of Education
Please indulge me as I explain why this strapline is crucial for all of us in education to consider.
“Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” –Sidney Hook American Philosopher
Sidney Hook hits the bullseye when he speaks of the learner’s experience in school. Our young people have no concept or understanding of pedagogy, from their perspective, the teacher is either good or bad. Often this is the signpost of great teaching. When the expertise and experience of pedagogical experience is so seamless, then meeting the student’s needs for learning and understanding can be achieved by constantly adapting to the needs of the learner.
The relationship between student and teacher takes place in the learning environment. In that space and time, the teacher is at the heart of education. Not the policy makers, the exam boards, the employers, or the inspectorate, it is the teacher!
“Teachers should be trusted… CfE is about the teacher in the classroom, knowing their students, designing their lessons to fit their needs, it should and must be a bottom up rather than top-down approach to education.”
John Swinney Education Minister
The words of our current first minister when he had responsibility for education. There is an old saying, when you want a job done properly, leave it to the professionals who know what they are doing.” Teachers are the professionals. Constant micro-management from all of the other bodies demonstrate that they do not trust teachers and their professionalism. They know better. Rather than facilitate the experts in the classrooms, they dictate how it should be done. It really is the case that our education system is controlled from the top down. Controlled by those who are not in front of the learners, but they know best! A bottom-up approach values the professional judgment and expertise of the teacher who is at the centre, the heart of education.
So let’s take a quick tour of some of the agencies that should be facilitators but consider themselves so expert that they can dictate what teachers should be doing in the learning environment when they are pretty remote from the day-to-day experience of actual teaching.
QUALIFICATIONS SCOTLAND
Formerly known as the SQA, they are currently undertaking a root and branch review of their operations. This involves consultation with all of the various stakeholders and interested parties. Like many other organisations, the consultation is a flawed product before it even gets off the ground. Stakeholders are those that have a direct responsibility in the development, construction, and execution of the various qualifications. Interested parties will have input but are not directly involved in the way that the stakeholders are. Therefore, whilst the interested party’s input is valuable, it should not override that of the stakeholders who have the ultimate responsibility of delivery.
In other words, it is incumbent on Qualifications Scotland to engage with the teacher’s professional associations as partners in the consultation and development process.
I will repeat the above point again for absolute clarity:
Teachers delivering the exams are NOT your employees, teachers are partners.
As a government sanctioned body, schools pay Qualifications Scotland to produce and deliver exam courses that meet the highest levels of integrity. When schools pay for a product, schools are the customer or clients, Qualifications Scotland is a service provider.
As clients the SSTA has repeatedly asked that Qualifications Scotland, the service provider that you take account of timings of the start of the academic year in schools, the contractual Working Time Agreements made in each school designed to control, in part, workload.
This is routinely ignored and, as a result, SQA/Qualifications Scotland is one of the largest contributors extreme toxic workload. Updates tend to arrive, well into the delivery of courses requiring more time to go back and amend what has already been taught. As these are often high-stake exams and are significantly important to the learners, all other work is put to the side. The result is that teachers are stressed, leading to exhaustion, compelled to work for no pay beyond the 35hrs just to catch up on the other tasks such as marking and preparation of lessons.
Your repeated failure to listen to the teacher’s concerns is significantly contributing to stress levels that is damaging both the mental and physical health of teachers delivering your product.
Consultation is an important element of any partnership. We are often told that you do consult teachers. However, this appears to be only the teachers you employ. This immediately creates a conflict of interest for those teachers you employ!
The SSTA Education Committee has carried out a number of surveys of our members across secondary schools in Scotland and they are all saying the same thing: The SQA/Qualifications Scotland are one of the major contributors to unmanageable workload and stress!
You are facilitators, you are not in the classroom, teachers are! You may be ‘at arm’s length’ from the Scottish Government. However, Teachers are at the Heart of Education and as a service provider you should be working with us, not issuing random edicts that contribute to excess workload.
We are educators. We are professionals. Too often, we are burdened with top-down directives and unrealistic timelines. We did not join this profession to be micromanaged by an agency that sees education as a system to control rather than a community to nurture.
Education Scotland: School Inspections
The current review is an opportunity to fundamentally change school inspections. Recent discussions with the SSTA suggest they want this to be ‘Supportive’.
However, what might being ‘supportive’ actually look like? Will time be taken to acknowledge and address that staff are on their knees? Will measures be taken to evaluate mental health support? Will L.A. be held to account for the numerous policy documents that supposedly address issues facing all staff, but simply gather dust in a filing cabinet for fear of reputational damage? Will the continuing rise of dual qualifications be challenged?
The SSTA recently had a consultation meeting with Education Scotland where these questions and more were raised. There was a positive vibe to the discussion and encouraging to hear a positive response to our concerns with genuine motivations to take on board our concerns.
Nonetheless, it was also acknowledged that, like most educational consultations, a whole host of interested parties were consulted but referred to as stakeholders. This raises once again that the wide consultation, in itself, informative and valuable, there still remains the ever-present risk that the teacher voice is diminished.
The role of Local Authority Inspections was also discussed. It is vital that this is looked at with some scrutiny.
I will come to CoSLA in more detail later. For the moment it is imperative that the inspectorate look closely at the pressure that comes from the employer.
Let’s take exam results as an example. Our Head Teachers come under pressure to demonstrate success in attainment. We are all familiar with the meetings we have with the head teacher in August to discuss the success or otherwise of the exam results. Get your predictions right, you get a smooth ride. Less than satisfactory results, we can expect an explanation of what went wrong.
Head Teachers also have meetings about the exam results and experience a similar approach. High stake exams not only put pressure to bear on the student, it also brings significant pressure on the Head Teacher. Tariff scores matter. The higher the score the better the school is perceived. If you are looking for a possible reason why advice from SQA that dual presentation should only take place in exceptional circumstances is routinely ignored, then join the dots. Instead of seeing a fall in the numbers we see a continuing rise in numbers of dual presentations. Head Teachers put pressure on teachers to do dual presentation, Head Teachers are under pressure to raise attainment and increase the tariff points for the school. Reputation takes priority over the needs of the learners!
Two questions for the new inspection regime:
1: As part of Local Authority inspections, will you interrogate why schools continue to do dual presentation?
2: As part of a school inspections, will you seek the evidence to support rising dual presentation?
If inspections are meant to be ‘supportive’, then dual presentation needs to be challenged as it is a significant driver of workload and stress.
Teacher’s professional judgement is by-passed, and the top-down approach continues.
The scores from exam results are a significant component of the mythological league tables used by the media.
These tables are an abomination! They have absolutely no bearing on what happens in schools. The amazing work that goes on in schools every day, the number of students who work their socks off to get a National 4 etc goes completely under the radar and is a slap in the face to every single student who have given their absolute best but did not get higher tariff points. The media should be ashamed of themselves for being complicit in a false narrative of the work that goes on in our schools.
Therefore, will you acknowledge that teachers are the heart of education and as an inspectorate, you will actively facilitate teachers to do their job?
SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Successive Ministers for Education have made valiant attempts to improve the educational experience in Scotland. There have been a plethora of reforms and reviews and yet we are on an inevitable downward spiral. Despite what appears to be sincere attempts to improve the lot of teachers and learners alike, progress has been glacial. A whole series of initiatives have fallen by the wayside, recruitment and retention is in crisis, and despite the political spin, the Covid pandemic has exposed the growing crisis that is upon us.
Despite the initiatives, the investments, the reviews, Education in Scotland has passed the tipping point leading to crisis. The brutal reality is that EDUCATION IS BROKEN. It only survives due to those working in schools going way beyond their contractual working hours for the sake of the students. The cost to mental and physical health is enormous. Teaching is not an attractive profession, pay and conditions are ridiculously poor compared to other sectors. To make matters worse, there is a siege mentality that exists in many, if not all of the organisations dealing with education in Scotland.
The issues are multiple. However, to highlight the disaster unfolding in front of us all right now is the crisis that exists within ASN provision.
There has been an explosion in the number of young people identified with Additional Support Needs (ASN). Yet instead of increased support, we are seeing ASN specialists being cut to save money. ASN staff are overwhelmed, and the system is breaking.
More and more ASN pupils are placed in mainstream classes, with limited—or worse, no—support.
Teachers are now expected to deliver ASN support on top of an already demanding curriculum, preparing multiple sets of differentiated materials. As a result, ASN learners are being failed by a system not built to meet their needs.
It is the GTCS registration category that informs employment. In 2020, the Court of Session clarified GTC Scotland’s long held position that a teacher must be employed in a role that aligns with their registration category. The four categories of registration are:
- Primary Education
- Secondary (Subject) Education
- Additional Support Needs
- Further Education
Teachers are at the heart of education. As the government, it is your duty to properly fund and facilitate the urgent support required for all of our young people with ASN. It is not enough to listen. You must act—and act now.
Reform has been worthwhile—but reform without teacher voice at the centre is empty. The professional associations that represent teachers must be front and centre of all consultations. For too long, teacher voice has been drowned out by the cacophony of commentary from every man, woman, and dug!
The Scottish Government is responsible for education policy. While implementation is devolved to Local Authorities, too often, they pick and choose which policies to enforce.
You are the government. You make the policies. It’s time to take control, enforce implementation, and stop passing the buck.
Stand up for our teachers. Stand up for all of our learners. Fund, support, and deliver—NOW.
CoSLA
Not good with acronyms, so took a guess at what COSLA actually stood for.
“Consistently Overdue, Still Lacking Agreement”
“COSLA: Champions of Stalling, Losing All trust”
Some might think I am not that far off!
For over two decades, CoSLA has repeatedly failed to meet pay negotiation deadlines. The only notable exception has been during multi-year pay awards — and even then, success has been the exception, not the rule. Despite the teacher side agreeing to move the deadline to August in good faith, CoSLA still failed to deliver. It raises a serious and fundamental question: why are they even part of the negotiating process if they cannot fulfil this basic responsibility?
The most recent pay deal saw unacceptable consequences for many teachers, as delayed back pay was processed in the new tax year, penalising staff financially. While some local authorities showed compassion, others simply shrugged, refusing to take responsibility.
This is just one symptom of a deeper, long-standing issue: CoSLA continues to use teachers as political pawns, sacrificing the profession in its skirmishes with the Scottish Government. Enough is enough. It’s time for CoSLA to act like mature adults, not playground bullies spoiling for a “square go” with ministers, while staff and young people suffer the collateral damage.
Let’s be clear about some of that damage:
The widespread exploitation of probationer teachers to plug permanent vacancies is nothing short of abuse of the probationary system. The concept of ‘supernumerary’ has all but vanished.
Every year, many of these early-career teachers buckle under unsustainable workloads and lack of support. They either leave the profession entirely or face slim chances of securing permanent contracts — only to see the next wave of probationers pushed into the same exploitative loop. Cheap labour, at great cost.
Teachers are “at the heart of education” — but when we ask for 90 minutes of ring-fenced time for actual teaching duties like marking and preparation, the horror from CoSLA is palpable. Their preference? More “collegiate time.” Not because it benefits pupils or teachers — but because it’s cheaper.
The so-called “national agreement” on terms and conditions is laughably inconsistent. With 32 local authorities come 32 different interpretations, resulting in:
Inequity in maternity and miscarriage leave.
Inequity in applying the “Toolkit.”
Inequity in pay and caseloads for Guidance staff.
Dubious practices such as creating mythical “Primary 8s” or claiming any teacher can teach any subject in the Broad General Education — a direct breach of GTCS guidelines.
Moreover, dual exam presentations continue to rise despite clear instructions that they should only occur in exceptional circumstances. Support for teachers facing abuse is patchy or non-existent. In many cases, staff are actively discouraged from filing reports or calling police due to fears over reputational damage. And while glossy documents on mental health gather dust, teachers work unpaid overtime just to stay afloat — at the cost of their well-being.
This is not sustainable. It is not professional. And it is not acceptable.
We call on CoSLA to stop the political games and start treating Scotland’s teachers — and the young people they serve — with the respect, fairness, and support they deserve.
All of the above is not an exhaustive list, but merely a flavour of the reality.
CoSLA and many of the Local Authorities believe that they are the heart of education and that teachers are a pesky bunch of miscreants who must be micromanaged! Teachers cannot be trusted, and every minute of the WTA must be accounted for! Free overtime is a result of teachers not knowing how to manage their time!
Here is a radical thought. If CoSLA and the individual Local Authorities are the driving force of workload in schools, the epidemic of mental health issues and related physical health conditions, are they fit to run schools?
The brutal truth is that CoSLA, along with the Inspectorate, Qualifications Scotland and the Scottish government believe they are the experts in education. They believe that by listening to experts who have been out of the classroom for some time are relevant in an education system that is constantly evolving yet many have lost touch with the reality of day-to-day teaching in the classroom in 2025.
In far too many ‘consultations’ the voice of ‘interested parties’ are given equal weighting to the stakeholders. More damning is the lack of voice that the teacher doing the day job has.
Teachers are at the Heart of Education. Teachers are the experts in the application of pedagogical theory. It is the teacher who, in every lesson, calls upon their expertise to adapt their planned lessons at a moment’s notice, when they perceive that the young people are struggling to understand particular concepts or ideas.
When you want an ‘evidenced’ based reason for teaching, then there are no greater experts than the teacher. The most neglected and under used resource of expertise that exists in education. That is why, for great learning to work, for a great educational system to thrive and grow, that nurtures our young people, that helps them on the journey of life, that it is the teacher who is at the heart of education who should be the first port of call when expertise is required. It is also why there must be a radical mind set change by all of the organisations who have input to education that they are NOT the provider; they are the FACILITATORS!
EDUCATION WORKS BEST WHEN THERE IS BOTTOM-UP RATHER THAN A TOP-DOWN APPROACH.
IF YOU WANT A GREAT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THEN IT IS INCUMBANT ON ALL THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE THAT YOU SUPPORT THE GREATEST EXPERTS AT OUR DISPOSAL. ASK THE SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP YOU TO DO THE BEST FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE?
LISTEN TO THE TEACHERS: THE HEART OF EDUCATION!
Thank you for your indulgence and patience for listening.
[Ends]