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Press Release

PAT SCOTLAND STATEMENT ON AUDIT SCOTLAND’S MCCRONE REVIEW

11 May 2006

The Professional Association of Teachers (Scotland) has given its reaction to the statement by Education Minister Peter Peacock on Audit Scotland’s review of A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century.

PAT Professional Officer (Scotland) Jim O’Neill said: “PAT Scotland cannot share the Minister’s rose-tinted view of the success of the McCrone Agreement.

“We would agree that the original Agreement had a great deal in it which promised much, such as the guaranteed induction year for student teachers leaving training, and the salary settlement for teachers. However, the outcomes have not always fulfilled that promise.

“So much of the document is interpreted and implemented differently in different council areas, and even between individual schools, that many teachers are becoming disillusioned and even bitter.

“It is not unusual for members to contact us because their workload is increasing, rather than decreasing as promised, or because they are not getting their agreed non-contact time.

“Our members employed as classroom assistants have similar gripes because the promised utopia just isn’t there.

“If the original Agreement had been properly funded from the start, with the money going where it was actually needed, then my casework load would be instantly halved.”



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