The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) Pay Claim 2024-2025
The SNCT Teachers’ Side pay claim for 2024-2025 was submitted in January. The claim for 6.5% for all SNCT grades from August 2024 was acknowledged by the employers at the SNCT meeting in February.
The SNCT Extended Joint Chairs (SSTA, EIS, COSLA and Scottish Government) met prior to Easter where no pay offer was made. COSLA stated it was waiting for a Council Leaders meeting on 27 April before moving forward with a pay offer. A further meeting has been scheduled for this week and the Teachers’ Side is expecting a pay offer if there is any possibility of a pay settlement to be in place by August 2024.
Reduction in Teacher Contact Time
The Scottish Government made a commitment to reduce teacher class contact time from 22.5 to 21 hours a week during the current parliament. Despite many discussions at SNCT little progress has been made. The employers have balked at the Teachers’ Side position of the additional 90 minutes being given back to teachers for planning, preparation, and correction. The employer has said that there is a problem with appointing the additional teachers to meet the time needed and in addition the employer wants the 90 minutes to be used for collegiate activities.
To support the implementation of the reduction in contact time the Scottish Government commissioned a report that includes pupil projections and implications for teaching resourcing. The report identifies the falling roll in the primary sector and the required number of teachers needed to implement the reduced teacher contact time policy. This report will be released shortly.
Inspectorate Review
The newly appointed HM Chief Inspector of Education, Janie McManus, has announced a review of the school inspection approaches to ensure that they reflect changes in educational priorities. The review will explore various aspects of the school inspection process, including the How Good Is Our School? 4th edition framework, activities before, during and following an inspection, and how we report the findings. (HMCI Letter to Stakeholders 26 April 2024) The SSTA will be involved in the review and will be seeking fundamental changes that make the inspection mechanism appropriate and supportive to teachers and schools.
Education Scotland
Education Scotland is making changes to its structure to strengthen work on Scotland’s curriculum, closing the attainment gap, and support with areas such as improvement in attendance and behaviour. Part of this a new ‘Meet the team’ contact directory that shows the senior regional advisors, the teams they have in place and the geographical areas they support.
In addition, a range of professional learning programmes are listed on a new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Portal on Glow and should be of interest to educational staff.
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