The secretary of Argyll and Bute’s largest teaching union has attacked accusations that the organisation spread ‘misinformation’ on plans for changes to education in the area.
Alison Palmer was responding to claims that a campaign by the local branch of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) had led to stakeholders being misinformed about the ‘Empowering Our Educators’ plans.
Councillors agreed to drop the proposal – which would have seen executive head teachers in charge of ‘clusters’ of up to eight schools – after a public consultation which sparked fierce criticism from many quarters, both of the proposals and the consultation process.
But Ms Palmer offered to work with council officials to help alleviate any concerns over the future of education in Argyll and Bute.
The discussion, and decision not to proceed with the plans, took place at a meeting of the council’s community services committee – of which Ms Palmer is a member – yesterday.
A report in advance of the meeting had said: “The promotion of misinformation, for example by lobbying bodies, and a campaign by the largest teaching union, was an issue from the outset, even prior to the proposals being issued to stakeholders and the consultation going live.
“This unfortunately led to stakeholders being misinformed in respect to key aspects of the proposals.
“For example, it was widely promoted that the proposals included plans to remove head teacher posts from schools, claims of illegality with regard to the creation of executive heads, risks of school closure, and reductions in pupil/teacher ratios and contact time.
“As the consultation process developed, the education service and wider project team spent an increasing amount of effort addressing questions and concerns around the misinformation in circulation, which was disruptive and detracted from the real focus of the consultation.”
Ms Palmer said: “As the teacher representative on this committee, and also as secretary of the EIS, I take issue with comments that the EIS has spread disinformation.
“We had concerns from the outset of this proposal, and highlighted this, which is what the consultation is all about.
“I am not speaking for myself; I am speaking for 85% of teachers in Argyll and Bute, because they are in the EIS.
“Their comments have made very clear their opposition to this proposal. We had a survey sent to all members and 4.9% of teachers in Argyll and Bute supported this proposal.
“This ties in with the figures in the report, but they have not discussed that today. I could talk about a lot of what has been said.”
Ms Palmer, who was formerly headteacher at Arrochar Primary before she moved on to a full-time role with the EIS, added: “Headteacher posts were to be removed and ‘head of school’ roles were to be introduced.
“Currently we have headteachers in our schools who do not teach, so why were we going to change this name?
“It would be the equivalent of a downgrade to a depute headteacher’s salary.
“We could go on about this all day. We have to now rebuild relationships and trust.
“We need an honest and open working relationship. We need to work collectively to address the issues with recruitment in some areas.
“You talk about a crisis, but is it a crisis? Only 15% of head teacher posts have had to be re-advertised.
“We need to encourage people to move to Argyll and Bute who want to come here. I am more than happy to work through this with communities and the council, and try to address any concerns they have.
“I am a little upset at the issue raised that we were spreading misinformation.
“We tried to get it out there so people could take a balanced view.”
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