Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils are the latest to announce school closures due to scheduled teacher strikes.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teachers’ union, is calling all of its Aberdeenshire members out on strike on Monday January 30.
In response, Aberdeenshire Council announced that all primary and secondary schools will close on that day.
Because the strike is only among teaching staff, chief education officer Vincent Docherty said that council-run nurseries will be open as usual.
Aberdeen City EIS members will strike next Wednesday, February 1. A council spokeswoman said it is not yet clear how many schools will be impacted, but there will be closures.
Individual schools are still assessing whether or not they will have enough staff to operate.
The EIS is demanding a 10% pay rise at all levels. Although the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SCNT) met multiple times in November, December and January, there has not been a pay offer since November 23.
The offer on the table promises a gradated pay rise according to experience. It is capped at 6.85%, for the lowest earners.
Aberdeenshire shutting its school doors
Although Aberdeenshire schools will return to normal on January 31, there will likely be more disruptions in the near future.
The EIS is planning two more phases of strike action in February and March. First, there will be two days of nationwide strikes on February 28 and March 1.
These will mark the start of another 20 days of rolling strike action, with members in each local authority going out on strike on different days. The EIS has not announced the strike schedule yet to say when it will call out Aberdeenshire Council members, but it is likely that schools will close when they do.
Next week’s strike day marks the third time that EIS has called out its members.
On November 24, EIS called for a nationwide walkout which triggered school closures across the country. The Association of Head Teachers and Deputes Scotland (ADHS) joined, making it the biggest industrial action over teacher pay since a contentious dispute in the 1980s.
Then on January 10 and 11, EIS called out all primary and secondary teachers on consecutive days.
But an EIS spokesman said that the planned strike action in February and March could prove to be the most disruptive move so far.
“Over the rolling strike period, each local authority area will be impacted by three consecutive days of strike action, with one day of strike action in all schools bookended on either side by one-day strikes in primary and secondary schools.”
City council unsure of full strike impact
The EIS is calling its Aberdeen City members out on strike on Wednesday February 1.
Closures are likely to happen on a school-by-school basis.
A council spokeswoman said: “Following robust risk assessments some schools will be unable to open but others may be able to open to groups of pupils where they have staff ratios that allow.”
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