Gilruth told her new deal for teachers has ‘gone down like a cup of cold sick’

by Bill Heaney

Scottish Government proposals to deliver a reduction in teachers’ class contact time, including a four-day teaching week, came under fire at Holyrood last week.

The new deal would include improved maternity pay arrangements and an agreed national minimum learning hours standard for all schools across the country, according to Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth.

She added: “That will form part of a new national deal for teachers, which is our opportunity to reaffirm the value that we place on teaching and to build a system that truly supports the profession.

“The proposals will be consulted on via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers and a paper has been shared to that end. Last week, I was pleased to meet with the EIS in the Parliament to discuss the proposals in more detail. It is also imperative that the views of parents and young people are listened to through consultation.

“I was also very pleased that the Scottish Government was recently able to settle the teacher pay dispute, which means that Scotland’s teachers remain the best paid in these islands. Scotland’s teaching profession will now expect the Government to move forward at pace on delivering a reduction in teacher-class contact. That is what the proposals seek to deliver: improved working conditions for our educators in order to unlock better outcomes for our pupils.”

LibDem Willie Rennie, Labour’s Pam Duncan-Clancy and Tory Stephen Kerr.

Scottish LibDem education spokesman Willie Rennie, determined not to become the teacher’s pet, told MSPs: “The cabinet secretary said that she was very pleased a number of times, but the teaching unions have reacted with utter fury and have said that the proposals are deeply disappointing. They have accused the Government of imposing a diktat.

“The SNCT, which she referred to, has expressed dismay and the unions are still threatening to strike by the end of January. Why does the cabinet secretary think that her positive announcement has gone down like a cup of cold sick?”

Jenny Gilruth, in the manner of the school teacher she once was, stamped her foot and replied: “I do not necessarily think that the language that Mr Rennie has just used is appropriate. I met the EIS in Parliament last Thursday, the day that I announced the proposals. I listened to the concerns that Mr Rennie has outlined today—I will not repeat the language that he used—and I will tell him exactly what I told the EIS.

“I share the teaching unions’ frustration that the reduction in teachers’ class contact time is moving too slowly and that discussions to date have focused too much on the technocratic barriers to delivering the change that we all want to see and too little on what our vision should be for the teaching profession.

“On Thursday afternoon, our detailed proposals were sent to the EIS and the other teaching unions. I have not heard commentary on the proposals themselves. I have heard a mixture of responses from some of the other professional associations, which I note welcomed them.”

But Willie Rennie was not prepared to bow his head and go and stand in a corner of the chamber.

He said: “My language is nothing compared with that used by teachers when they told me about the reaction to the cabinet secretary’s proposals.

“In answer to my parliamentary question, the cabinet secretary said: ‘“I am pleased that earlier this year the SNCT subgroup on Reducing Class Contact Time agreed with the Scottish Government proposal to develop a workplan to deliver a route map towards reducing class contact time, at pace.”—[Written Answers, 24 November 2025; S6W-41769.]

“Is not the truth that, five years on, nothing is being done ‘at pace’ by the Government and that it is moving towards the next election having failed to deliver that important policy and promise for teachers?”

Jenny Gilruth then mounted her high horse.

She said witheringly: “I do not recognise what Mr Rennie has just iterated. It is important that we reflect on the progress that has been made in the past year.

“I observe that the teaching unions in Scotland take the position that there should be separate negotiations on pay and conditions. That matter is entirely within their gift, but it is important that we move forward with the improvements on reducing teacher-class contact time that we need to deliver, because that is what will make a difference at the chalkface.

“Unfortunately, I did not hear Mr Rennie comment on the differences in maternity pay that Scotland’s predominantly female teaching population experience currently. Teachers in Scotland get 13 weeks’ full pay, unlike local government staff, national health service staff and civil servants who get better maternity pay than teachers, so I thought that Mr Rennie would welcome the proposals for his constituents.”

Stephen Kerr (Central Scotland) (Conservative) shaped up to become the bad boy at the back of the class.

He said: “The problem is that the cabinet secretary has complete disrespect for the Parliament. She is lifting her eyes to the ceiling as though I should not be bringing this matter to her attention, but we are talking about a press statement. Where is the detail? Was something distributed to the convener of the Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee? I do not think so. Was anything shared with the committee members? Nothing at all. This just smacks of a gimmick, because the cabinet secretary is failing to deliver a manifesto commitment—a number of such commitments were made on education.

“My question to the cabinet secretary is very simple. She has already admitted that the ideas that she has floated will have major implications for parents, councils, pupils and, as Willie Rennie said, teachers. When exactly will she respect the Parliament sufficiently to publish detailed proposals? When will we have sight of the rationale for them? When will we see the evidence for this set of ideas? When exactly will she come to the Parliament to make a statement or hold a debate on the issue, so that we can properly scrutinise her actions?”

Any more of this kind of stuff and Stephen Kerr was risking being sent out to the corridor.

Jenny Gilruth told MSPs: “She is not the cat’s mother, and “she” is not looking to the ceiling—I am looking directly at Mr Kerr currently while I address him in the chamber, showing respect to this institution.”

Stephen Kerr replied: “You were doing that.”

Jenny Gilruth told him, again using strange language: “I hear Mr Kerr commenting from a sedentary position. I often hear him comment about behaviour in schools. I think that he could set a better standard for our young people than the standard that we are experiencing today.

“On the Government’s detailed response, this is not a matter for the Education, Children and Young People Committee or the Parliament; it is a matter for the SNCT to negotiate on. That is why the proposals are in draft form. A detailed paper has been put to the SNCT. I see Mr Kerr looking as though he wants to be a member of that negotiating committee.”

Stephen Kerr: “No, I want the Parliament to be respected.”

Jenny Gilruth said: “I am sorry to hear that he is not a member currently, but that committee needs to negotiate these things. The tripartite agreement is hugely important.

“I would have thought that Mr Kerr would have welcomed the idea of considering, for example, a national approach to learning standards and learning hours across the country, given that there is variation all over the country.

“I would have thought that, as a democrat, Mr Kerr—who respects this institution so much—would have welcomed the move to democratise the approach to the hours that are taught in our schools in order to ensure fairness across our curriculum system and for all our children and young people.”

Paul McLennan (East Lothian) (SNP) brought an end to that unseemly cat fight.

He said: “I welcome the cabinet secretary’s proposals. Ensuring the wellbeing of the teaching workforce is key to improving educational outcomes for children. Tackling workload is, quite rightly, a key aspect of that, and remuneration is another. Will the cabinet secretary update us on the outcome of this year’s pay negotiations for teachers?”

And this she did.

Jenny Gilruth said: “I am delighted that teachers have accepted a new pay deal that ensures that Scotland’s classroom teachers on the main grade scale continue to be the best paid in the United Kingdom. The agreement shows what can be achieved through constructive dialogue. The deal means that the starting salary for a qualified teacher in Scotland will increase to more than £41,900, with further increases in April and August. Furthermore, the salary for classroom teachers at the top of the main grade scale will have increased from £37,575 in April 2018 to more than £52,600 by August 2025—an increase of 40 per cent.”

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Labour’s education spokesperson, didn’t actually say that Ms Gilruth shouldn’t be so smug about the whole thing, but that thought may have crossed the mind those looking on from the public gallery.

Ms Duncan-Glancy told the education secretary: “Teachers have been waiting for action on workloads since the Government made them promises four and a half years ago, yet there was no movement until, in a desperate attempt to act at pace, it made a rushed announcement. The trade unions have said that the announcement appears to ‘undermine the established SNCT negotiating machinery’, and has caused dismay on the teachers’ panel, which says that the cabinet secretary has circumvented ‘the well-established collective bargaining structures of the SNCT’.

“What does the cabinet secretary intend to do about that, or will collective bargaining be the latest casualty of this Government’s incompetence?”

A feeling similar to one similar to the one we used to get on a Friday afternoon during two of Latin came over me at that point.

Jenny Gilruth wound up: “I am surprised that Ms Duncan-Glancy did not listen to the answer that I gave to Mr Kerr … I want the teaching profession to hear the ways in which that might be delivered … I know that that is a matter that Ms Duncan-Glancy takes seriously, so I hope that she will engage with some of the proposals and share any thoughts that she has about how we can lighten the load on our teachers and let them get on with teaching our children and young people.”

Top of page picture: Teachers have been campaigning for better pay and conditions since 2020.