Swinney refuses to rule out school strikes
Following questioning by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, First Minister John Swinney has refused to rule out school strikes happening in the new year.
Scottish teaching unions have opened a statutory ballot for industrial action over teacher workloads.
The SNP have failed to deliver their 2021 manifesto promise to cut class contact time for teachers by 90 minutes, which would allow more time for key tasks such as lesson preparation and marking.
During this week’s session of First Minister’s Questions, John Swinney could not guarantee to Alex Cole-Hamilton that there will be no strikes in the new year.
Speaking in the chamber, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:
“When John Swinney was Education Secretary, the SNP made a manifesto commitment to cut teachers’ class contact time.
“An hour-and-a-half less each week in front of class, so more time to do lesson prep, to do marking, and all the other things that teaching involves. That is what the SNP promised they’d deliver.
“Now, nearly five years on, that’s not happened, and teachers are so angry about it that they could strike by the end of January.
“So can I ask the First Minister, why has he not delivered on the SNP’s manifesto commitment to our teachers?”
Mr Cole-Hamilton went on to say:
“It's a pretty pathetic excuse for the First Minister to pin this on councils when so many of those same councils are run by his party.
“Let’s just get all of that straight: so the SNP government is blaming SNP councils for stopping the SNP from keeping SNP election promises.
“With that kind of contortion, the First Minister must be attending some kind of secret yoga classes.
“Presiding Officer, teachers don’t want to strike. They just want this government to keep its promises.
“Strike action a couple of years ago caused pupils to miss up to a dozen days of school. It caused havoc for working parents.
“So, will the First Minister give families a cast iron guarantee today that there will be no strikes in the new year?”