Meeting of the Parliament 09 February 2012
I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance copy of his statement.
The McCrone review was about improving morale in Scottish education, supporting professionalism among teachers and fairly rewarding experience and expertise. The McCormac review, on the other hand, will, I fear, help to destabilise and demoralise the teaching profession. It is a charter for cost cutting by managers and is an academic fig leaf to allow the Scottish National Party Government to facilitate budget cuts across Scotland, building on previous education betrayals by the SNP, including the pledge to cut class sizes and the pledge to maintain teacher numbers.
I disagree profoundly with the cabinet secretary’s decision to abandon the chartered teacher scheme. I believe that it can be amended and improved, but the concept—that we should find a way of supporting and rewarding excellent teachers who want to remain in the classroom—remains the right one. The cabinet secretary has said nothing about supporting teachers who see that as a preferred career option.
I welcome the cabinet secretary’s rejection of the Renfrewshire Council model of replacing teachers with unqualified staff, and I hope that any suggestion of bringing others into our schools will be based on teacher professionalism, with proper safeguards and checks built in.
I do not oppose the idea of supporting teachers to improve and develop their skills, but does the cabinet secretary recognise that there are fears that there could be an attempt to introduce reaccreditation, and will he rule that out?
The cabinet secretary has said nothing about probationary teachers. Will he rule out any attempts to move away from the current structure on class contact time, and will he guarantee that hours will not be blocked to allow schools to use probationers to cover for absence?
I regret that the cabinet secretary has glossed over the key issues around conditions. Teachers should not have to do continuing professional development during school holidays. We should not casualise promoted posts by having temporary promotions based on the lowest salary point. Will he guarantee that he will not ignore the overwhelming response to McCormac from those who want the retention of annex B, the list of teacher duties, and annex E, the list of teacher tasks?