Scottish teachers strikes

[museumum]

How have other Scots found the teachers strikes?
I’m seeing a lot of stress from English parents I know on Fb as well as on mn but it seems to me in my bit of Scotland parents have said “fair dos” to the teachers and just got in with things/arrangements quietly.

I’m not sure this is necessarily good for the teachers cause….

interested to hear from other Scots around the country….?

Me too. So blessed to have John Swinney at the helm. Lucky us 😭I do think the targeted strikes are unfair. I don’t think they will work either; terrible precedent to set if they did.

Me too - god bless our hopeless Education Secretary. My poor Higher-sitting child is getting a bit stressed 😥

I really feel for parents. From what I've seen it's £47k for main grade teachers, top of the scale. No wonder NS stood down. She can't fix everything. The SG can't borrow like every other government.

@Piffpaffpoff we are in the same constituency. Just got my Carrie Lindsay email this afternoon.

Fortunately my eldest is still just S3. I feel for the older kids sitting exams.

We get another 3 days in March. So 8 days total. 🥲

@MajorCarolDanvers yes, got my cheery update from Carrie too. I’m broadly supportive of the strikes but 8 days in 3 weeks is a bit steep and I think this approach might end up backfiring in terms of parental support.

Agreed ! Teachers are very well paid, the Herald reported teachers in Scotland are the second highest paid in the UK next to London ! Average teacher salary in England is only £35,000 !! Time to let NHS and other public sector workers in Scotland catch up !

Are all schools striking on both 28th and 1st, or is it one day for primaries, one day for secondary kids again?

It’s both primary and secondary on both days

@TheTrees1 I already work in a primary school thanks and not getting a pay rise that big.

Haven't we borrowed enough? It's not about levers, taxes have gone up, we have more money than other areas of the UK due to barnett, why the hell should we borrow more to fund permanent pay rises? IFS says Scotland can't fund current spending commitments.

No, I don't think Nicola fancied trying to fix this either. Talk of borrowing levers is cheap talk.

How much has Scotland 'borrowed'?

Scotland's share of the UK debt obviously. You're arguing for unfunded pay rises or cuts to other public spending because you're doing some magical thinking about levers.

Ah, because Scotland can't borrow can it? I'm not arguing for the pay rises, I'm not sure where you saw that.

And borrowing isn't a 'magical lever' . It's standard for nearly every government in the world.

My apologies - tbh I am with the teachers but I feel the last offer was decent and that the general outlook is gloomy for everyone.

Why would you want Scotland to borrow to fund pay rises for salaries for permanent govt staff? I know it's pro Indy to constantly bang on about levers like borrowing but the 'we need to borrow' rhetoric for every funding crisis is not building confidence in anything except that we'll end up in an even worse state should Scot gov have more levers.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

It's magical to think that Scotland could borrow at a good rate in a situation when they can't fund their budget. Govts around the world are being punished by spiralling borrowing costs.

I am a teacher and feel it's a decent offer too. As I said above, I really feel for parents who will no doubt find it very stressful having to take days off or pay for childcare.
My point is that we can't borrow so where will the extra money come from?

I'm generally supportive of strikes but I don't have a huge amount if sympathy for this one. Teachers already receive a reasonable salary. I saw a comment the other day about how teachers deserved the pay rise they were asking for due to the qualifications they require. Unfortunately I don't think this is the case in the current climate. I can think of hundreds of jobs that require the same, and often more, qualifications and they do not receive the salaries that teachers already receive. Nurses and allied health professionals, researchers etc.
The pandemic created enough disruption for education and we are all experiencing a cost of living crisis. I work in the third sector, worked face to face as a keyworker throughout the pandemic and have not received any salary rise at all. So unfortunately, I believe the teachers should have accepted a lower increase by now and these strikes should not be going ahead. As a Union member it pains me to say that, but I think they are being extremely unrealistic.

I think it should have gone to ballot. Our staffroom was for accepting it and it's going to make the next strike days very divisive.

I am sympathetic to the teachers but, as a country, we absolutely should not be borrowing to fund public sector pay rises. We need to live within our means otherwise we'll end up like Greece did s few years ago!

This was also the feeling in our staffroom too tbh.. I think if they’d balloted, it would have been accepted.

How is it a decent offer? It's the same one that has been rejected (twice!) plus your strike pay.

It doesn't matter if you think it's a 'reasonable salary'. People cannot afford to have their income errored by over 20% in the last 10 years.

Chatting about it in the staff room today and agree with pp that if we'd been balloted I feel it would have been accepted. Done with this now so, like many others at my school, I won't be taking part in the upcoming strike days.

That, unfortunately, is the reality for many workers. Out of interest, where do you think the money should come from and why do you think teachers deserve more than other equivalent level public sector workers?