Almost every school is closed during the first Scotland-wide teachers’ strike since the 1980s.
Scotland’s first national schools strike since the 1980s is taking place with a one-day walkout by teaching staff.
Pupils at nearly every primary and secondary school and many council nurseries are affected by the industrial action over pay.
A revised pay offer on Tuesday was rejected as “insulting” by unions.
But Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said their demands for a 10% pay rise were “unaffordable”.
A new pay offer from employer Cosla – which would have seen rises of up to 6.85% for the lowest paid – was fair, Ms Somerville said.
The EIS now represents about 80% of the country’s teachers and its actions are closing almost all primary, secondary and additional support needs schools.
Only a handful of primary schools in Orkney and Shetland will remain open.
Many early years learning centres and nurseries are also affected.
The current pay offer would mean that all teachers on the main pay scale would get a rise of at least 5%.
However, the EIS said that about half of headteachers and deputes – who are earning salaries above £60,000 – would receive a rise worth less than 5%.
‘Awful offer’
One teacher told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme she felt more teachers would have been persuaded to join the walk-out after learning of Tuesday’s offer.
Jehan, who works in Edinburgh, said: “After that awful offer I think any teachers that were thinking that perhaps they might quietly stay at home were moved to start making their placards and head to one of the rallies that’s taking place.
“We are asking for 10% as we are looking to keep our salaries in line with rising inflation which is currently sitting at 11%.
“We are members of the public too that are feeling the squeeze caused by this cost-of-living crisis so even if we were to get that 10% we would still be slightly below inflation. So it doesn’t even amount to a pay rise.”
She added: “We work way beyond our 35-hour week. The long holiday that people always criticise us about nowhere near comes close to making up for the amount of working hours we put into the job and many teachers work through the holidays to prepare for the next term.”
She said many teachers found their job to be very stressful and added that the pay “isn’t fit for purpose”.
“We are professionals, we do a very difficult job,” she said. “We are highly trained and we are not paid like other professionals are.”
Another teacher Andrew, who works in Angus, told the programme going on strike was very difficult.
“Our main job is to look after and educate young people. We absolutely love doing that but we also want to be paid similar to the rate of inflation,” he said.
He added that his family was losing two days’ wages due to being on strike.
“There are two of us off today,” he said. “It’s something we both believed in that we really had to do to try and protect the rest of the family for the future.
“It’s a struggle but something we have to work for. Hopefully the Scottish government and Cosla [the councils’ umbrella body] and the unions can get back round the table and come to some sort of agreement.”
EIS representative Roisin McArthur, who works as a teacher at Govan Gaelic Primary School, told BBC Scotland: “We’re sorry that the Scottish government and Cosla have forced us to do this. We really don’t want to be doing this. It is a last resort.
“If people really want to really invest in children and Scotland’s future, that means investing in education and that means investing in teachers.”
She said teachers on the picket line had received “great” support from the public.
“We’ve had loads of cars honking their horns,” she said. “We’ve had people giving us a wave and it’s really motivating and encouraging to see the amount of support that we’re getting out here today.”
Picket lines
Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Association of Head Teachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS) – will be on picket lines outside schools and at rallies in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Inverness in the morning, and outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh during the afternoon.
EIS has warned further strikes in December can not be ruled out.
And it said primary teachers planned to strike on 10 January and secondary teachers the following day, with further industrial action in February.
The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association and NASUWT plan to strike on 7 and 8 December, leading to closures of some schools and disrupted timetables in others.
Today is the day neither the Scottish government nor the EIS union hoped they would ever see.
This is the first national teachers’ strike in Scotland since the long, bitter dispute of the mid-1980s.
The EIS and the other unions hope more strikes can be avoided and that today will be a one-off.
But finding the money to give the unions a 10% pay rise would mean some very hard choices for councils and the Scottish government.
The educational impact of a one-day strike will be very limited in itself.
But it comes as schools continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic. The loss of any teaching time can never be a good thing.
It also means that attention which should be on raising attainment or helping pupils who lost out during the pandemic will instead be focused on balancing out the impact of disruption.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the union had been “forced into this strike” after months of talks with Cosla and the Scottish government.
“They have offered a series of sub-standard offers that fall far below the rate of inflation and far short of the justifiable expectations of Scotland’s hard-working teaching professionals,” she said.
Teachers had reacted with “great anger” to the latest offer from Cosla, Ms Bradley added.
“Their much self-lauded ‘generous and progressive’ offer is actually worth, on average, an extra 71p per week to Scotland’s teachers compared to the previously rejected offer. For most teachers, there is no improvement at all, as 80% of teachers are still being offered 5%.”
Parents’ representatives said strikes could present problems for families.
Leanne McGuire, from Glasgow City Parent’s Group, said school closures would be particularly difficult for single working parents, those without a support network and children with additional support needs.
Speaking to Good Morning Scotland, she said: “The majority of parents understand why parents are striking and obviously we would support anybody’s right to strike for better conditions but that obviously doesn’t take away the concerns of how some families are going to cope today.
“There are different aspects we need to take into consideration and it’s not just about looking for a babysitter.”
Erica, who is in S4, told the programme the strike had been explained to senior pupils who take subjects such as Modern Studies, but she was concerned that the strike had not been explained to younger pupils.
She added: “I’m definitely worried about missing a day of school because I really want to do well in my exams. But nobody wants to go on strike, if my teachers feel like this is a last resort then I fully support them in that.”
Meanwhile Shirley-Anne Somerville said she was “very disappointed” that strike action would disrupt children and their families.
She told BBC Scotland’s The Nine that a 10% pay increase was “unaffordable for the Scottish government”.
“We have a fixed budget that is already fully utilised for this year, so to do anything that would increase the resolution that we have on this would mean that money would have to come from elsewhere.”
Other strikes
During the last national strike by teachers in Scotland in the mid-1980s, it was rare for schools to close completely.
Students could still attend lessons with teachers who were members of other unions.
The Scottish school strikes come amid industrial action across the UK on Thursday.
Strikes are taking place at 150 universities as workers from the University and College Union (UCU) protest about pay, working conditions and pension cuts.
Royal Mail staff are also returning to picket lines for 10 more strike days at the postal service’s busiest time of the year, after talks ended without agreement.
Meanwhile, teachers elsewhere in the UK are being asked if they also want to strike over pay.
In a separate dispute, staff at 17 Scottish universities are expected to walk out on Thursday and Friday and on 30 November.
About 8,000 workers in Scotland are expected to join a UK-wide strike over pay, working conditions and pensions.
The University and College Union (UCU) said the impact would vary between institutions, but they expected some tutorials and lectures to be cancelled.