Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Scottish Teachers in strike threat over increased workload and stress as increasing gormless and ineffective Scottish Education Sec Mike Russell fails to get a grip on education problems; Alex Salmond’s English crony is denying Scottish kids a secure future


















Dear All

Have you ever seen the movie DareDevil?

In the movie, the superhero is said to be the ‘man without fear’, in the case of Alex Salmond’s crony, Mike Russell, you could describe him as the ‘man without brain’.

No matter what level of education in Scotland you look at, it’s all a disaster.

Higher education completely mess, further education under developed, and schools, well the SNP don’t get it.

Now, Teachers are threatening to throw Scotland's new school curriculum into chaos with strike action before the end of the year.

Good times on the picket lines!

The Educational Institute of Scotland is to take the fight to the right wing SNP as the country's largest teaching union will discuss industrial action.

The trigger is the controversial Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

Disastrously set up, underfunded, and serious doubts about it have dogged this project from the get go, but like a man in a burning house, Mike Russell has blundered on regardless.

A motion from a Glasgow branch calls on the EIS ruling council to prepare a campaign of action "including strike action" to be in place by December "in opposition to the increased workload associated with the implementation of CfE".

Could more pay solve the problem?

Possibly but like many public sector workers they are finding out that the SNP don’t care and don’t want to pay the money.

More work less pay seems to be the motto.

The SNP has burned up good will of teachers; this could affect the roll out of the new curriculum and put it into complete turmoil.

So, it looks like a fight is coming between teachers and the Englishman who runs Education Michael Russell.

He is speaking at the organisation's annual meeting on Saturday; this presents an opportunity for loud and public booing, followed by the classic slow hand clap.

A recent study in February found 55% of EIS members were either "barely confident" or "not confident at all" of introducing the new National Qualifications, which replace Standard Grades in 2013/14.

Why take a new product to the market without proper and detailed work involving the union in the first place, it is really is bad top down management.

Awhile ago, I said this problem needed shelved, but Mike Russell went ahead regardless, apparently he doesn’t care about problems, well he better start, a rolling strike is bad PR and especially bad PR now that the referendum debate is under way.

In the SNP world, everything is nirvana in Scotland, but on the ground, in the reality it is a pile of shit that isn’t tied in the middle, it is falling out all over the place, for Russell, he probably pats himself on the back and says job well done.

We are paying for a Salmond crony, who needs to be removed, the ‘talented’ appear to be not so ‘talented’.  

Other unions have also picked up on the issue, with a survey by the NASUWT teaching union finding nearly three-quarters of members said they had experienced more workplace stress.

Maybe, we are looking at a massive walkout on the cards.

65% of those surveyed by the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association earlier this month said they were not confident of delivering support materials.

How much evidence that this project needs pulled has to be placed before Russell before he acts and shelves the project to allow more academic work to be carried out?  

More than 80% said they lacked confidence in assessing pupils for the new National Qualifications.

How can this be at this late stage?

Where is the joined up thinking?

The motion from the Glasgow branch states:

"That this AGM instruct council to prepare a campaign of action, including strike action, to be in place by December 2013, in opposition to the increased workload associated with the implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence in secondary schools."

Glaswegians, salt of the earth, mind you we should look at history, especially Mike Russell who famously said:

"Pull over and stop the car (if you dare) and walk into the closes smelling of urine and rubbish, cluttered with dirt and debris. It is not uncommon to have to step over a comatose body, with or without a needle by its side."

I have never stepped over a comatose body with or without a needle, in Glasgow, it shows however the contempt that the Scottish National Party hold ordinary working class people in, at the senior level.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

3 comments:

  1. OMG who would have thought that the SNP would have completely messed up higher ed.

    It shows George, you do have a handle on things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi George -

    Long time reader, first time correspondent...

    "In the SNP world, everything is nirvana in Scotland, but on the ground, in the reality it is a pile of shit..."

    Precisely! These people are, to a man and woman, fantasists and supremacists. And when such people get their hands on power, you always end up with bullshit such as you describe here; and things like the destruction of the history and english curricula in order to better promote 'Scottish culture' (whatever the hell that is).

    The net result of all this will be that our kids' qualifications won't be worth shit to universities outside Scotland (although maybe that's the plan?), and probably to precious few here - and if that turns out to be the case, our kids will, by default, end up being outbid for places by their EU counterparts, whose education we'll be paying for, while our kids are thrown on the scrapheap (again, though, maybe that's part of the plan: with no uni education, they'll be less able to leave, and more able to work for peanuts for the unscrupulous employers the Nats hope to attract here with their corporation tax cut).

    It's scary shit, frankly, and we can't get these assholes out of power soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
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