Commenting on the "Future of Teaching Employment" statement by Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, SSTA General Secretary Ann Ballinger said:

The Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association today unanimously rejected the proposals from the employers' organisation, COSLA, regarding changes to Scottish teachers' conditions of service. The matter will now be put to a ballot of SSTA members with a recommendation to reject the offer.

Speaking in Edinburgh, SSTA General Secretary, Ann Ballinger said:

“The meeting of the SNCT last Wednesday considered a new offer from COSLA. The SSTA representatives undertook to refer the offer to its Salaries Committee. The Committee today unanimously rejected the proposals. The Committee was highly critical of particular aspects of the proposals.

1.       The proposed reduction in the rates paid to short term cover teachers (“supply” staff) amounts to a 45% reduction in current earnings. The SSTA notes that the most recent COSLA proposal constituted a further deterioration in salaries beyond that proposed in the original COSLA offer. The demeaning treatment of teachers who provide cover for absent colleagues betrays the total inability of COSLA to understand feeling within the profession.

2.       The figures quoted by COSLA in relation to “guarantees” of future teacher employment themselves represent a significant decrease in teacher numbers. The successful implementation of Curriculum of Excellence requires that teacher numbers remain at least constant. COSLA can only suggest that they will “guarantee” a reduction in teacher numbers. Such a decline will inevitably lead to a reduction in the number of subjects offered to young people in middle and upper phases of secondary education. Parents will increasingly choose schools for their children on the basis of the breadth of the curriculum on offer.

3.       The supposed “guarantees” on teacher numbers are, in any event, meaningless. The penalty to be applied if COSLA members do not employ sufficient teachers gives no guarantee at all. All that is suggested is the “possibility of reversion” to current conditions. The statement that the Government “may seek to apply a sanction” is valueless, most obviously because there is no certainty attached and because it is not possible to bind a new Scottish Government to the proposal.”

4.       Teachers' conditions of service have a huge impact on teacher morale. The deterioration in conditions and salaries proposed by COSLA is certain to contribute to a reduced provision for Scotland's young people. The link between teachers' conditions and the quality of education is clear to all but COSLA and the Scottish Government.

The ballot of SSTA members asking them to accept or reject the offer will take place during April.

For further information Contact

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) is the body containing representatives of the Government, COSLA and the teachers unions. It determines nationally negotiated salaries and conditions for teachers in Scotland.

The SSTA is Scotland's second largest teacher union representing 8500 members within secondary schools in Scotland.

The Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association today unanimously rejected the proposals from the employers’ organisation, COSLA, regarding changes to Scottish teachers’ conditions of service. The matter will now be put to a ballot of SSTA members with a recommendation to reject the offer.

Speaking in Edinburgh, SSTA General Secretary, Ann Ballinger said:

“The meeting of the SNCT last Wednesday considered a new offer from COSLA. The SSTA representatives undertook to refer the offer to its Salaries Committee. The Committee today unanimously rejected the proposals. The Committee was highly critical of particular aspects of the proposals.

1. The proposed reduction in the rates paid to short term cover teachers (“supply” staff) amounts to a 45% reduction in current earnings. The SSTA notes that the most recent COSLA proposal constituted a further deterioration in salaries beyond that proposed in the original COSLA offer. The demeaning treatment of teachers who provide cover for absent colleagues betrays the total inability of COSLA to understand feeling within the profession.

2. The figures quoted by COSLA in relation to “guarantees” of future teacher employment themselves represent a significant decrease in teacher numbers. The successful implementation of Curriculum of Excellence requires that teacher numbers remain at least constant. COSLA can only suggest that they will “guarantee” a reduction in teacher numbers. Such a decline will inevitably lead to a reduction in the number of subjects offered to young people in middle and upper phases of secondary education. Parents will increasingly choose schools for their children on the basis of the breadth of the curriculum on offer.

3. The supposed “guarantees” on teacher numbers are, in any event, meaningless. The penalty to be applied if COSLA members do not employ sufficient teachers gives no guarantee at all. All that is suggested is the “possibility of reversion” to current conditions. The statement that the Government “may seek to apply a sanction” is valueless, most obviously because there is no certainty attached and because it is not possible to bind a new Scottish Government to the proposal.”

4. Teachers' conditions of service have a huge impact on teacher morale. The deterioration in conditions and salaries proposed by COSLA is certain to contribute to a reduced provision for Scotland's young people. The link between teachers' conditions and the quality of education is clear to all but COSLA and the Scottish Government.

The ballot of SSTA members asking them to accept or reject the offer will take place during April.

For further information Contact

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) is the body containing representatives of the Government, COSLA and the teachers unions. It determines nationally negotiated salaries and conditions for teachers in Scotland.

The SSTA is Scotland's second largest teacher union representing 8500 members within secondary schools in Scotland

The SSTA, representing 8500 Scottish Secondary Teachers, today accepted much of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission (the Hutton Report) but at the same time rejected one of the central proposals.

Speaking today in Edinburgh, SSTA General Secretary, Ann Ballinger commented on the report.

“Lord Hutton and the Commission members are to be congratulated on the scope, depth and readability of the Report. It contains wide ranging proposals which do substantially deal with all relevant issues and do provide a basis for an affordable but fair public sector pension strategy. The SSTA totally accepts that any pension system must be operated at an affordable level but points out that while the Government makes much of current funding costs, no such complaints were received when inflation ran into double figures and successive Governments were delighted to borrow employee contributions at interest rates hugely below those then prevailing.

“The Commission's Repost must, however, be seen in the current context of fund contribution rates. It is the Government's clear intent to raise employee contribution rates in three stages over the next few years. For teachers this would lead to a contribution rate of around 9.4% (or to put it in more stark terms, an increase of over 45%) at a time when wage increase will be nil or not much beyond that figure.

“In particular, the SSTA welcomes the confirmation that currently accrued benefits will be protected and that only contributions payable from some future date will be governed by any new mechanism.

“Where the SSTA does differ with the Commission is on the proposal that new benefits should be calculated on a career averaged salary basis rather than on the current final mechanism. The SSTA believes that significant increases to pensions caused by the larger salaries paid towards the end of a career should be financed (as the Commission partly accepts) by a tiered contribution rate. The SSTA totally rejects one clear error in the Report‘s conclusions which suggests that the final salary element of pension scheme design causes a barrier in labour mobility between public and private sectors. No such barrier is apparent.”

Welcoming large areas of the Commission's report, Mrs Ballinger added:

“The Commission accurately and decisively rejects many of the more extreme views provided in evidence particularly by those who see public sector pensions as no more than a drain on   resources rather than, as Lord Hutton points out, “an important element of remuneration”. The odious comparison with poorly performing private sector provision (which is no more than a comment on the skills of fund managers), is decisively rejected.

“The SSTA is delighted to take part in subsequent discussions (which the Report sees as essential) on any aspects of change to the design of public sector pension schemes.”

For further information contact:

Jim Docherty

Depute General Secretary

0131 313 7300

10 March 2011

Following a meeting of the Executive Committee today SSTA General Secretary, Ann Ballinger commented "Our members will be balloted on the same issues which have concerned us since the early days of the Curriculum for Excellence proposals, namely:

• Inadequate curriculum guidance for teachers planning the implementation of this initiative.
• A complete lack of information about assessment in the first years of secondary schooling.
• No proposed structure or guidelines for reporting attainment to parents in the crucial first stage of secondary education.
• No clear guidance about the point at which pupils can commence National Qualification courses.
• Profiling and reporting proposals which reintroduce a discredited process, with serious workload implications for both teachers and pupils.
• A proposed national qualification system which fails to provide equality of opportunity for all young people working at the new national levels 4 & 5."

The ballot will be conducted over the next 2 weeks with a result expected by Friday 25 June. Members will be asked if they are prepared to be balloted on industrial action short of strike action.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association representing 8500 teachers in Scotland's secondary schools today attacked proposals for the arrangements for the new examinations to replace the current Standard Grades.

In a message to members, Ann Ballinger, General Secretary of the SSTA criticised the current proposals for the assessment mechanisms.

"Members of the SSTA at their recent Council meeting passed a motion demanding that action is taken to prevent the introduction of a two-tier system of assessment which will penalise the least able pupils in Scotland. Under the proposals, pupils who will sit the examinations intended to replace the current Credit examinations, will have at least one examination paper which is externally marked. Pupils sitting General and Foundation replacement examinations will sit papers marked only within the school.

Mrs Ballinger continued, criticising these proposals as driven by financial considerations:

"There is no doubt that whatever is intended, examinations marked within the school will never lead to qualifications which will gain the same degree of acceptance as those marked by external markers. These proposals are made solely on the basis of minimum cost with no consideration given to their impact on young people.

"Both the Scottish Government and SQA have a duty to ensure that the Scottish qualification structure is fit for purpose and allows equality of opportunity for all young Scots. If these proposals are implemented they are clearly failing in that duty.

"The SSTA must also comment on level of funding available to support the writing of new courses for Curriculum for Excellence. Councils across Scotland are struggling to deal with unprecedented financial pressures. There is quite simply no money available for training courses or for supply cover for teachers undertaking development work. Consequently teachers have to make a choice of using their available time either to concentrate on existing pupils or produce material for the new courses.

Staffing levels in every school are being reduced and remaining staff have to work harder simply to maintain existing standards. The resources required to produce new courses for Curriculum for Excellence at school level simply do not exist.

It is unacceptable to damage the prospects of the current Primary 7 pupils by introducing them to a secondary curriculum which is, at best, only partially developed. The process will not work. We need to ensure this implementation is right first time and to do that we need concrete information, time and resources to prepare a fully developed curriculum with appropriate and fair examination structures. This will not happen in 2010.

For further information please contact Ann Ballinger, General Secretary on 0131 313 7300.

Additional background information

Motion passed at Council

In a newsletter to members, SSTA General Secretary, Ann Ballinger, attacked local authorities in their approach to the issue. She noted in particular

"There seems to be a myth circulating that delegation to "schools" is a good thing. Regrettably no Scottish school ever did anything in the cause of education: the headteachers and staff many do that. The "school" concept is being used as a smokescreen in an attempt to disguise that more and more is being imposed on headteachers as authorities try to make savings.

"Two particular areas should be highlighted. Too many Councils are giving far too much authority to headteachers in terms of the employment of staff. Headteachers must not hire staff. A headteacher is not an employer. A supply teacher brought in to teach for even one day is an employee and automatically has certain employment rights. The SSTA notes with grave concern that many Councils offer no training at all in employment related issues and in particular in employment law."

Mrs Ballinger also criticised the absence management policies currently operated by many Councils.

"Headteachers are now asked to spend far too much time dealing with Council absence management procedures which too often call for an interview with every member of staff who has been absent for even one day. Such interviews are generally to absolutely no purpose and serve only to use up valuable time. Attempts have been made by some headteachers and employers to delegate this matter to Principal Teachers. Such a practice leaves the

Principal Teachers a hugely difficult position as they attempt to discuss with colleagues (and friends) confidential issues relating to the teacher's absence.

"The answer is clear: if the HR departments of Scottish local authorities do not have the resources to implement absence management systems from within HR departmental resources, the systems should be abolished or reviewed in order to produces a mechanism which can run within current budgetary constraints."