Classroom ‘crisis’ as teachers stage boycott of supply work

Scottish schools are facing a “crisis” in classroom cover as hard-up teachers boycott supply work over derisory rates of pay, MSPs have been warned.

The situation was branded “unfair and unjust” by Labour yesterday, which said the pay system was a throwback to the 1930s and called for it to be overhauled.

In some parts of Scotland, more than 90 per cent of short-term supply requests are not being filled, with Edinburgh facing “serious problems”, MSPs heard.

The Scottish Government has pledged to “monitor” the situation, but Labour education spokesman Hugh Henry called for action in a Holyrood debate.

“The current situation is unsustainable,” he told eduction secretary Mike Russell.

“We are seeing an attempt to dilute pay in the teaching profession in a manner which is a throwback to the 1930s.

“Teachers are being offered stints of five days or less, which allows employers to avoid paying them a higher rate.”

Pay for a supply teacher was reduced for the first five days to £70 a day last year, to help generate an estimated saving of £60 million. Some supply teachers are earning half of what permanent staff were being paid, according to Mr Henry, a former education minister.

“It’s no wonder that teachers are starting to boycott supply posts,” he said.

“This cannot go on. It’s not fair to pupils who are facing a succession of different faces, and it’s not fair to teachers who worked hard for their qualification and who deserve a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

“This unfair and unjust pay agreement needs to be scrapped now.”

Labour schools spokesman Neil Findlay criticised the education secretary for ducking the issue in his address to parliament yesterday.

“I’m so surprised that the education minister doesn’t mention the crisis in the supply teaching when we have an education debate,” he said.

Teaching union the EIS has already branded the situation a crisis at a time when the new Curriculum for Excellence is being introduced.

Supply teachers in Scotland have set up their own website to fight the “unjust and devastating” attack on their pay levels and conditions.

Labour’s MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith MSP, Malcolm Chisholm, said: “There is a serious lack of availability in supply teachers now in Edinburgh.”

Schools minister Alasdair Allan said that unions and government have already reached an agreement on the issue. But he added: “It is certainly something that we’re alive to and continue to monitor the situation.”

Local government umbrella group Cosla has said the changes in conditions reflected the fact that teachers providing “very short term” supply teachers don’t have the same responsibilities as longer-term colleagues.