The NASUWT, the fastest growing teachers’ union in Scotland, is adding to its current industrial action to protect teachers and to support them in addressing the spiralling bureaucracy and workload associated with the Curriculum for Excellence.
Employers have today been given notice of a new and additional action instruction which will take effect on 12 May 2016, as part of the NASUWT ongoing industrial action campaign.
The NASUWT is in dispute with the Cabinet Secretary over workload, pensions, pay, conditions of service and job loss. The new instruction is in response of the failure of the Scottish Government and employers to ensure that measures are in place in schools to prevent the spiralling excessive workload being faced by teachers, particularly as a result of the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.
NASUWT members are being instructed to refuse to comply with any Curriculum for Excellence related planning, monitoring assessment or reporting systems which are inconsistent with the recommendations of the Curriculum for Excellence Working Group.
Workload is currently the top concern of teachers, with 87% of teachers in Scotland, who responded to a recent NASUWT survey, citing it as their biggest concern about their job.
Excessive workload is driving teachers out of the profession, with over two thirds of teachers in the same survey saying they had seriously considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“Excessive workload is blighting teachers’ professional lives and affecting their health and wellbeing, yet the Government and Employers are failing to act.
“The reforms to the curriculum and qualifications systems have simply piled on the pressure.
“Recommendations made by a Government Working Group set up to examine these issues are being ignored by employers and schools. With 87% of teachers citing workload as their biggest concern and two thirds considering leaving the profession altogether, this situation cannot be allowed to continue.
“Teachers are tired, exhausted and disillusioned.
“The NASUWT’s action instruction issued today, to escalate our existing industrial action, will empower teachers to challenge and remove the unnecessary bureaucratic burdens being placed upon them by the Curriculum for Excellence, to take control of their professional lives and to focus on their core role of teaching.
“Teachers need more than fine words from the Government and employers about tackling workload, they need action.
“Pupils are entitled to be taught by those whose working conditions enable them to focus on teaching and learning.
“The NASUWT escalation of action will protect teachers and pupils in the face of the failure of Government and employers to do so.”
Jane Peckham, National Official Scotland, said:
“Talented teachers are being driven out of the profession because of the burden of excessive workload.
“Yet the Government and employers fail to act. If it wasn’t for the NASUWT action already in place this situation would be far worse.
“This new instruction will help to address the specific burdens generated by the Curriculum for Excellence.
“The NASUWT has warned repeatedly that unless teachers’ terms and conditions are made statutory, schools and employers will simply fail to take the necessary action to address teachers’ concerns.”
