EIS leader says school violence would not be rocketing if ministers had listened to Scotland's teachers

Andrea Bradley unveiled plans for a new education funding campaign

Soaring levels of violence in Scotland's schools are the result of decision-makers failing to listen to pleas from teachers for extra support, the head of the nation's largest teaching union has said.

Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), made the claim as she vowed the union would now "pivot" from recent industrial action over pay towards a new campaign for greater funding for education.

The initiative will focus on tackling "crippling" workloads and the "scandalous" underfunding of additional support needs (ASN) resources, as well as cutting bureaucracy and improving staff safety.

EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley, joins members of the EIS and SSTA unions, on the picket line at St Andrew's and St Brides High School in South Lanarkshire. Secondary schools around Scotland are shut as members of the EIS and SSTA unions are taking strike action in a dispute over pay. Picture date: Wednesday January 11, 2023. PA Photo. Scotland's Education Secretary has said she will leave "no stone unturned" to bring about a quick resolution of teacher strikes affecting schools across the country. See PA story INDUSTRY Strikes TeachersScotland. Photo credit should read: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

The union leader was giving her first keynote address at an EIS annual meeting since being elected to the position last year.

Ms Bradley spoke about concerns over growing levels of classroom disorder.

She said: "Colleagues, an increase in violent incidents and distressed behaviour are the consequence of not listening to the voices of teachers as they’ve called for more support for children and young people whose mental health is fragile.

"And, as the EIS and others have called for, more support for teachers and other school staff whose wellbeing continues to take a battering as schools struggle with Covid recovery."

She added: "Tens of thousands of teachers are in classrooms every day working almost single-handedly to respond to the growing number, range and complexity of additional needs, feeling like they just can’t do the job that they want to do for anyone. That has a grinding impact on morale.”

Ms Bradley called on the Scottish Government to deliver on promises to reduce class contact time, protect teacher numbers and reduce class sizes. "The working conditions of our teachers and lecturers are the learning conditions of our children, young people and students,” she said.

"We need both to be much, much better. And we’ll continue to fight for that as a union.”

As close to 400 delegates met in Aviemore for a three-day conference on Friday, Ms Bradley described the last year as a "trial by fire".

She praised members who she said had "stayed strong and resisted" during the first national strike action by teachers in Scotland over pay for four decades, which led to a new deal.

And she took aim at SNP ministers, who have linked the pay deal to a £46 million cut in funding for universities and colleges.

“The other thing that we’ll be doing is blasting the Scottish Government and anyone else who tries to blame teachers and the teachers’ pay deal for any disgraceful decisions that they make to cut the funding to FE and HE, or to roll back on commitments to free school meals expansion, or to stop funding for Masters’ Level learning programmes for teachers,” she said.

"Teachers’ pay should have nothing to do with any of these things.”

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “The Scottish Government recognises and appreciates the hard work of our teachers. Our determination to support them led to an historic pay deal, which now means that Scottish classroom teachers, on the main-grade scale, are the best paid in the UK.

“This year, £4.85 billion has been allocated across the education and skills portfolio. Scottish education continues to perform strongly. The most recent figures show the biggest single-year decrease in the poverty-related gap in primary numeracy and literacy levels since records began.””