Teachers across Fife have been urged to support strike action when they are balloted by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) within the week.
Scotland’s largest teaching union says teachers are facing “excessive and unsustainable” demands in relation to new Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) assessment and verification procedures, and formally agreed to move ahead with a statutory ballot on industrial action at a meeting of the EIS council earlier this month.
And with union members in secondary schools across Scotland being asked the question this week, Fife EIS has called on its members to overwhelmingly vote yes to industrial action.
David Farmer, publicity officer of Fife EIS, told The Courier: “Our members in secondary schools have faced increasing pressure as the examination system has changed.
“Teachers in secondary schools will be aware of the duplication and bureaucracy involved in many of these procedures.
“The pressures on workload have increased rather than decreased. It is now time to resist.
“Our secondary members have been complaining about this for years. We now need them to act on these concerns.”
Mr Farmer pointed out that joint meetings between the teaching unions, the SQA and the government have so far failed to resolve concerns, and stressed that a strategy that would involved a boycott of SQA procedures would begin in the new school year if members vote yes this week.
An indicative ballot by the EIS has already suggested that more than 93% of members said they would be willing to take some kind of action over increasing workloads.