Teachers union says parents can bring school strikes to end by lobbying politicians

By Chris Cromar

March 1 2023, 4:45 pm

Teachers striking at Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen. Image: Kath Flannery / DC Thomson

A teachers trade union official has said that if parents want their children to return to the classroom full-time they have to lobby politicians for better teacher pay.

Carole Thorpe, an Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) representative in Aberdeen, made the claim today as teachers in the city started the second day of their two-day strike.

Teachers picketing outside Skene Square Primary School in January. Image: Wullie Marr / DC Thomson.

It follows national strike action involving several unions in January and late last year.

The EIS, which also staged 16 days of rolling strike action from mid-January into early February staged three days of targeted walkouts last week, targeting prominent politicians’ constituencies, including Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.

EIS members have rejected the Scottish Government’s latest pay offer, which would result in teachers earning up to £80,000 being given a 6% pay rise and another 5.5% from the start of the 2023 financial year.

Striking teachers at Hazlehead Park’s Park Cafe today. Image: Chris Cromar / DC Thomson.

Rally in Hazlehead Park cafe

In Aberdeen, members of the trade union met at the the Park Cafe in Hazlehead Park, where they shared refreshments and enjoyed a performance from a live band.

Despite many parents having to take a day off or find alternative childcare during the strikes, Mrs Thorpe dismissed the thought that striking teachers meeting at a cafe with entertainment while children’s education is being affected would be seen as contradictory.

She said: “Well, the teachers have paid for this with their union dues. There’s plenty of children here with their parents, a lot of teachers are parents, we’ve got a lot of kids here today.”

Jackie Munro, Carole Thorpe and Zem Chefeke at the strike today. Image: Kath Flannery / DC Thomson.

Despite the education secretary saying the disruption to young people’s education is “completely unacceptable”, Mrs Thorpe said she has been told by colleagues on picket lines that “people are very supportive of the strikes”.

The Hanover Street Primary School teacher said: “The way round that, if they (parents) want their kids to be in school full-time, they need to lobby their MSPs or their councillors to try and get Cosla and the Scottish Government to treat teachers fairly.”

‘I want to give my daughter the best’

About 50 teachers were at the gathering this morning, including Rachael Skelly, an English teacher at Aberdeen Grammar School, who attended with her young daughter.

In her 13th year as a teacher and at the top of her pay scale, Mrs Skelly said she still “struggles month to month to make ends meet”.

She said: “I’ve gone into a profession, I’ve trained five years for this and I think our job and expectations are getting higher and higher, and we need to be rewarded for that.

“I’ve got a young daughter, I want to give her the best start and to do that we need to be recognised for the job that we do.”

All schools across Aberdeen were shut today due to the strikes. Image: Shutterstock.

Thanking parents for their support, Mrs Skelly added: “I know it’s hard with parents having to take days off, but we’ll hopefully get this sorted and people back in school.”

RME teacher at Harlaw Academy, Jackie Munro, said teachers feel “undervalued and underpaid” and is worried about today’s pupils having no interest in a career in the profession.

She said: “If I ask my seniors what are they going to do at university, they will say anything but teach and that is because they know that we are underpaid for everything that we do.”

Making career more attractive

Mrs Munro thinks making teaching a more attractive profession could help raise Scotland’s international education standards, which has been fallen in Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings, adding:

“A good start to doing that would be attracting the best graduates to the teaching profession, keeping them and making teaching the kind of profession that my senior pupils do want to enter.”

The teacher also said that her and her colleagues would do “extra” after school and in the holidays to make sure this does not affect pupils’ attainment.

Despite the education secretary asking teaching unions to “resume pay talks urgently”, the EIS has announced a new 20-day wave of rolling strikes between March 13 and April 21 respectively.

They will take place across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, as well as the Highlands, islands and Moray on the following dates: