Politicians "Wrong" To Blame Teachers For Failings

The Scottish Government must give teachers the resources to give children in poverty a better education, according to a leading union.

Members of the EIS union say it's "wrong and wholly unacceptable" to try and blame schools for the problems of poverty in society. MSPs will debate the issue at Holyrood later.

EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “Poverty can create very serious challenges for young people with regard to both their education and their broader life chances. Scotland’s schools and its teachers are fully committed to tackling these problems to help provide every young person with a fair chance to reach their potential.”
 
He added, “However, schools cannot solve society’s problems in isolation. The difficulties that many young people can face in their educational careers are a reflection of the much larger and more widespread societal problems of poverty and deprivation. It is simply wrong and wholly unacceptable for any politician from any political party to attempt to blame schools or teachers for the problems of poverty in society. Schools themselves are facing serious challenges owing to falling budgets, scare resources and cuts in staff numbers. The demands placed on teachers are growing, and workload and levels of stress and related illnesses are extremely high. Despite all of this, schools are working extremely hard to support pupils from all backgrounds and should be receiving not blame but both praise and more support for this essential role.”
 
Mr Flanagan went on to criticise recent claims from some politicians of a decline in literacy skills. He said, “Curriculum for Excellence is predicated on the development of literacy and numeracy skills as being a whole school responsibility and curricular content has been designed with this is mind. The recent Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) actually reveals a high level of engagement by non-English teachers with the promotion of literacy skills, which is what CfE is designed to do. Teachers clearly understand the importance of literacy as a foundation block for learning across all subjects and, as the evidence shows, are actively engaged in promoting literacy across the curriculum. The findings of the SSLN also explicitly rule out any notion of declining standards as a full analysis indicates the maintenance of high standards with 80% of pupils measured as doing well or very well. Where a slight dip was identified – from before two years ago – this was focussed mainly on pupils from the most impoverished backgrounds which is clearly a matter of serious concern but underlines the impact of austerity measures on young people. Scottish teachers continue to work exceptionally hard to deliver Curriculum for Excellence and politicians should be working together to support this shared objective rather than selectively misusing data to score party-political points.”
 
Recommendations that the EIS has submitted in response to the Education Scotland Bill include:

The EIS believes that the introduction of the Bill alone will not deliver significant change in reducing inequalities of educational outcome or impact greatly on the attainment gap created by socio-economic inequality. The EIS is in favour of ring-fenced funding linked to specific objectives as a means of driving forward policy aims in a meaningful way.

The EIS is of the view that education authorities at present have the mechanisms and structures to support actions that are aimed at tackling inequalities of outcome but the resources available for this have been a limiting factor, e.g. smaller class sizes, as Scottish Government has acknowledged, can contribute significantly to reducing inequality of outcome but this requires expenditure. 

EIS policy supports the provision of free school meals for all children and young people in state funded schools. We believe that there should be a review of existing policy rather than a re-stating of the extant position. A change to increase the provision of free school meals would have both learning and health benefits for the young people of Scotland.

The Bill fails to take the opportunity to clarify, define and extend the requirement for access to a GTCS registered teacher for all 3 to 5 year olds in state funded education. It is the EIS view that raising attainment and tackling inequality of outcomes would be assisted by this measure, a view supported by extensive research evidence.

There is a growing threat, owing to financial pressures on local authorities, to the length of the pupil week in primary and legislation is needed to ensure that the current provision is at least maintained. A reduction of teaching and learning time is neither beneficial to raising attainment nor to closing the attainment gap. The Scottish Government should regulate pupil entitlement in terms of the number of hours which constitute a school week.

The Bill provides an opportunity to provide a definitive position on teacher numbers. An agreed mechanism on teacher numbers would resolve a contentious public debate. The EIS believes the issue is best resolved through a minimum national staffing standard.