NASUWT Scotland, the fastest growing teachers’ union in Scotland and the largest in the UK, will hold its Annual Conference on Friday 13 May and Saturday 14 May.

Teachers will debate motions on a wide range of issues affecting the profession and education, including the reforms to qualifications, school buildings, cuts to school staff and resources and teachers’ pay and conditions.

On Friday, the Conference, held at the NASUWT Scotland National Centre in Edinburgh, will be addressed by NASUWT General Secretary Chris Keates.

Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

“Teachers are gathering in the wake of NASUWT members having been forced to escalate their industrial action campaign as a result of the failure of Government, employers and schools to address the spiralling workload and bureaucracy blighting the profession.

“The motions submitted for debate at this Conference show teachers are increasingly worried about cuts to the support and resources they need to enable them to be able to provide the highest quality of education for all of the children and young people they teach.

“As the new Government assembles in Holyrood, NASUWT members will be using the Conference to send a strong message to politicians that pledges on the campaign trail to tackle the attainment gap and provide world-class education for every child must be backed up with improved support for and investment in the school workforce which is central to maintaining world class schools.”

Jane Peckham, NASUWT National Official Scotland, said: 
 
“Teachers have demonstrated their dedication  and commitment to rising to meet the challenges of major educational reform over the last few years.

“They have done so at a time of significant budget cuts and despite the failure of employers to put in place adequate resources to support them.

“However, as this Conference will undoubtedly hear, teachers are increasingly frustrated by the fact that their professionalism and children’s education is being undermined by the introduction of under-resourced initiatives and by the failure to recognise the increasing bureaucratic and workload burdens they face.

“Teachers’ patience is exhausted.”