Dunfermline: Teachers protest over pay offer from Government

The strike last week, their first in close to 40 years, saw almost every school in Scotland closed to pupils.

And the Press was there as members of the EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland) gathered outside Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville's constituency office to demand a 10 per cent pay rise, what they say is the bare minimum needed to meet rising costs of living.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills was in Parliament at the time.

Among the protestors there was a clear feeling of duty – many of them felt they did not have a choice but to attend and make their voices heard, not only for themselves, but for the children in their classes too.

One, who did not want to be named, told the Press: "I think it's important about presence, it's one thing coming and striking and getting that public support, which is what you get on a picket line, but this is saying, 'We're standing, we matter, this is an important thing'.

"These are the guys in power, Shirley-Anne Somerville is making all these promises, talking about how supportive she is of teachers, but we are not seeing that reflected.

"Nobody is working hard enough for the teachers, we are absolutely on our knees and don't feel appreciated, the pay offer they are giving us is farcical.

"I think in general it's this general uneasiness and unrest, I've been feeling this unrest for everybody and this is my way of being a part of the jigsaw, I have to be part of it, apathy is the enemy here.

"I'm doing it for me, I'm doing it for everyone in my profession, I'm doing it for the bigger picture, everybody is struggling."

She described how she had turned to resources like the OLIO app, which redistributes food which would otherwise go to waste, to buy cheaper items in order to make ends meet.

Her group, none of whom wished to be identified but had experience ranging from five years to 30 years working in primary schools in Fife, lifted the lid on their reasons for attending the protest, including additional work, 15-hour work days, and the changing needs of children.

They laughed, when asked if they had ever felt as if they couldn't do it any more, with one responding: "When have you not thought about leaving? That's the question."

She continued: "People are broken, because of stress of pupils, their nurture needs, the parents' needs, particularly after COVID the parents need a lot of nurture as well.

"We feel like we are social workers, psychologists, everything communities need is being put onto schools."

Another added: "In no other profession is it accepted to be verbally and physically abused every single day.

"We are talking about from nursery and all the way up, they have taken away the support some of these children had, it isn't there any more."

She explained: "I hate to say it but society has changed, the kids don't have the concentration, they don't have the consistency of behavioural management at home from parents.

"They'll come up to you and say, 'What do I do now?', and you say, 'Well, the bell is about to go in one minute, why don't you just go and put your pencil away and sit?' but they cannot just sit and do nothing."

One of her colleagues continued: "In lockdown, I looked up things like CBBC, Cbeebies, looking for what made them so engaging.

"That was the most impactful thing because I was thinking as a teacher and a parent – I needed the child that was in front of me to be engaged enough so that parents didn't have to worry.

"We still have kids without provision and without support so instead of focusing on how I am delivering to get them engaged I am going, 'Get that off his neck', 'Get out that cupboard', 'Put those scissors down', that's how my life is spent."

Another female protestor who had joined the group said: "They are used to sitting on their PlayStation, their Xbox, which is fast-moving and fast-stimulating and then we are asking them to come in and sit in a chair for a period of time and do learning, writing and numeracy – they haven't got the concentration.

"If you stand and watch a kid nowadays, if there is a row of them, they are fidgeting, they can't stand still."

This was also a serious concern from another pair, who also work in primary schools in Fife and also did not want to be identified, who believed that stress caused by pupils was one of the primary reasons for action.

The first commented: "There is a lot of physical violence towards staff.

"A lot of the time, you are policing your class and battling to actually be able to do your job because of the verbal abuse and physical abuse you get."

The other added: "An example is P1, these children lived through lockdown, they missed nursery, they have come in and have no idea how to be in school and how to socialise.

"The problems we are seeing now with behaviour, it's not their fault but it is just so difficult.

"Some of them come in and they have been up all night playing games, they're yawning, they're not interested in learning.

"The older ones want to be on phones, computers, tablets, that traditional teaching model is really difficult to engage them with, and that's just primary, I don't know how they do it in secondary."

For them, current pay levels don't reflect the work which goes in to running a classroom on a daily basis and mean that they can't provide resources or learning opportunities in the same way they could in the past.

One of the two women said: "The feeling in schools is very strong, a lot of staff feel quite aggrieved, we worked very hard during the pandemic, we work hard all the time.

"It's not a job that switches off when the children leave, it's 24/7, we feel very undervalued, morale is low, and the cost of living is going up.

"None of us want to be out on strike today, we want to be there for our children, but to make things better for them this is what we are having to do.

"A lot of the time, teachers are buying resources for their classrooms, basic resources – pencils, glitter, glue, card, if you do any cookery.

"In terms of overall cuts, that's how it is affecting the children as well – our salary is not increasing and more and more we are having to tighten our belts and say that we can't buy these things."

Within the larger group, there was also a feeling of frustration over a need for additional initiatives to take place, with many parents now used to having an insight into their child's day in school, and therefore an increasing reliance on unfamiliar technology which would not have been used prior to the pandemic.

One teacher, who had been in the role for nearly 30 years, explained: "It is a different job from when I started, no question.

"We have such a crammed curriculum, when do you actually fit that in to your timetable when the kids are in front of you?

"Then they turn around and say attainment is down – they can't read, they can't write, they can't spell – and you think, what do you want us to do? We can't do everything.

"You don't mind to an extent, we want to help the kids, we want to help the families and the communities, but there has to be an element of fairness.

"Parents got used to us communicating through different platforms – for example SeeSaw – and it is brilliant in its place but now the parents expect that and management is telling us it shouldn't be an add-on to our jobs, just film your teaching.

"So you're not paying them your full attention, not giving them the feedback they need, then you go home and watch the video, you have to make sure one isn't swearing in the background, somebody's not picking their nose or have their hands down their trousers, someone's not said something which is not appropriate, making sure the girl in the corner who is not supposed to be on social media isn't being caught on camera, then you edit it, try to upload it, it doesn't work."

Another added: "No-one is going to pick it up, you have to plan and organise for your class, you have to organise resources, you have to implement new strategies, you have to do all of these things.

"If it was just planning for your class, delivering and assessing, and just for your class, that would be fine, but it's all the additions, all the new initiatives, all the extras.

"They want second languages more ingrained in the school, P6 and P7 have to do two foreign languages, and apparently a six-week course is going to enable us to teach a foreign language to a class."

Members of the EIS voted in support of strike action earlier this year after rejecting offers from the Scottish Government on pay rise proposals.

Paul Jeffrey, assistant secretary for the Fife local association of the EIS, told the Press at the event: "We feel that our wages have been deteriorating for the last 12 years or so because of austerity and although we got a wage rise in 2018 it has kind of dissipated.

"The hope was that it would follow the same pattern as 2018 where we had a massive demonstration and the threat of industrial action by teachers was enough to encourage the Scottish Government to give us a pay rise, but that hasn't happened this time.

"Frankly, teachers are quite angry, they feel that after the time they spent through the COVID years when they put in extra effort, they were effectively frontline workers working in schools full of children and full of COVID, this has been a kick in the teeth.

"We don't feel that we should need to take action like this to get an affordable pay rise or an affordable wage in the situation we all find ourselves in."

Graeme Keir, also from the union, explained why the SNP politician's office was chosen for the demonstration.

He said: "She's not been listening, she's not been listening to teachers, she's not taking in what we're saying.

"There are real concerns from teachers, not just pay, and we don't seem to be getting any answers from Shirley-Anne Somerville.

"There are lots of questions, she started a national discussion, but there are big, big issues which need to be sorted out and you can't run schools without staff, without teachers' goodwill and morale among staff.

"She seems to have ruined that in the way she has played games with teachers' pay and in the last few days seems to really have stopped doing any serious negotiating and is now running a PR campaign badmouthing teachers I think and trying to make us out to be unreasonable."

Ms Somerville said: "Strikes are in no-one's interest, and the intensive negotiations that have already taken place with the trade unions will continue as we try to find a resolution.

“It is very disappointing that the EIS and the SSTA have rejected the latest offer, which is fair and progressive and mirrors the deal accepted by other local government workers.

"The latest offer – the fourth which has gone to unions – would have meant a 21.8 per cent cumulative increase in teacher pay since 2018.

"The starting salary for a fully-qualified teacher would be £35,600. That’s £7,650 more than their counterparts in England.

"It is simply unaffordable to have a 10 per cent increase which unions are asking for within the fixed budget which the Scottish Government is working in.

“I greatly value the teaching workforce and recognise the strength of feeling within the unions.

"However, they also need to recognise that the Scottish Government budget is fixed and already committed.

"Any new money for teacher pay would have to come from elsewhere in education.”