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In the long-time Labour-supporting New Statesman, by the long-time critic of the SNP and Director of Lord Jack McConnell’s ‘Enlighten’ think tank, Chris Deerin writes:

Scotland’s teaching unions must be broken

The country’s education system needs radical reform.You can always rely on the EIS. The Educational Institute of Scotland, the country’s largest teaching union, has for decades been the main block to effective reform of the nation’s schools. Its instinctive belligerence and obstructionism are key reasons that educational performance among pupils is in decline. Change must be opposed for its own sake, regardless of intention, statistical evidence or international best practice.

True to form, as Scotland’s children prepare to sit their exams, the union has balloted its members on strike action. It said that 85 per cent of those who took part backed a walkout over an “excessive workload” for teachers. The irony is that the SNP government is about the best friend the EIS could have. It recently agreed to a 7.5 per cent pay rise, and has also announced plans for a four-day teaching week, with the possibility of later start times and longer breaks. Not enough. The terms and conditions of the profession must be further softened, or it’s one-out, all-out. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2026/03/scotlands-teaching-unions-must-be-broken

Here is what Chris is concerned about:

Now, I was a long-time EIS member and, in principle, remain a strong supporter of organised labour, but the EIS has deep ties to the Labour Party. The leadership historically, went to school and university (esp Stirling, with me) with Labour activists, later elected politicians, and many cannot see clearly and, importantly, what an SNP Government has done for them and has been doing for them, for years now.

Here it is.

It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that if teacher workload is the issue in Scottish schools then there is a failure here of management in schools to apply the clearly superior funding made available by the Scottish Government and maintained over decades now.

The facts from Grok AI with sources below are above and:

Sources:

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2024 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2023

There’s more:

By JB

The headline at the top is from Teachers Education Supplement magazine 2019 in an article about a teacher from England who came to work in Scotland.

“Teachers have a far better time of it north of the border, says this educator who has experienced school life in both countries” 

He goes on to say that “On balance, I think teaching in the Scottish state- education system is better than in the English one. It seems foolish now that I never considered there would be differences; it’s just that my English-centric view had me assume that the two systems would be identical. Believe me, they are not.”

In England, he states, that, teachers “definitely cannot work in a place of their choosing if they are not required on site.” In other words it is “expressly forbidden” for a teacher in England to take home a pupils work for assessment. 

In Scotland you can and he says that “treating teachers with this more professional and trusting attitude seems the norm here.”

He explains why Scottish teachers are “so engaged” and “so fiercely passionate about contributing their views” at staff meetings.

He says that “teachers have a much stronger voice here” whereas in England they are not asked for their opinions or to put ideas forward.

He ends with “ if you were to ask me where teachers have a better time of it, I’d say Scotland comes out on top.”

‘I’d rather be a teacher in Scotland than England’ | Tes Magazine

From UCL (University College London) 2020

Wellbeing among teachers in England is lower than in Scotland

According to their report they used “data from the Annual Population Survey” where they compared levels of anxiety, unhappiness, low life satisfaction and low levels of self-worth across the four consistent countries of the UK. 

They found that:

“Teachers in England are more anxious and less happy”

The standout finding is that teachers in England are more likely to say that they are unhappy (21% of teachers) than their Welsh (18%), Scottish (17%) and Northern Irish (12%) counterparts.

A similar pattern can be seen for levels of anxiety, with teachers in England more likely to report higher levels of anxiety (21%) than those in Scotland (18%) and Northern Ireland (13%). The figure for Wales is close to the English figure, at 20%.

Teachers in England also had lower levels of life satisfaction than teachers in Scotland.

Unfortunately they then go on to put Scotland down, as is always the way if England doesn’t’ come out top, by the quite frankly cringe worthy  “Maybe the sunny Scottish weather, copious amounts of Iron-Bru and the ready availability of haggis could be factors at play.”

Is wellbeing among teachers in England lower than in the rest of the UK? | UCL IOE Blog

From The Guardian

“Record numbers of teachers in England quitting profession, figures show

Department for Education survey finds that 40,000 – almost 9% of workforce – left state schools in 2021-22 before retirement.”

“The survey found that unfilled teaching vacancies were also at a record high, with more than 2,300 empty posts compared with 530 a decade earlier. A further 3,300 posts were filled by supply teachers, 1,000 more than the year before.”

“Teaching unions blamed poor working conditions and the long-term erosion in pay for the exodus.”

Record numbers of teachers in England quitting profession, figures show | Teacher shortages | The Guardian

So there you have it “why teachers in England seem to be the most miserable.”

And why the SNP Government have made life as a teacher in Scotland an envious vocation!!!

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