Urgent action needed to avoid 'teacher exodus' claims Scottish Labour

Labour's education spokesman has called on opposition parties to back his call for the Scottish Government to review teachers' pay and conditions.

Iain Gray has written to the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens asking them to support him to ensure teachers do not leave the profession.

More than 40% of Scottish teachers are considering leaving their job in the next 18 months due to stress, according to a survey published earlier this week.

The Bath Spa University report described the working conditions of Scotland's teachers as extremely poor''.

Mr Gray said: Scotland already has 4,000 fewer teachers and 1,000 fewer support staff thanks to this SNP government - and research published this week shows even more hard-working staff could be lost.

This is simply unacceptable. With class sizes already bigger than ever, the last thing our schools need is an exodus of staff because of SNP mismanagement.

An urgent review of pay and conditions is desperately needed to ensure our teaching staff are supported properly. I hope parties from across the political divide will support this call.''

In his letter, Mr Gray stated: Earlier in the summer I called for an independent review of teachers' pay, conditions and career structure but this was missing from Nicola Sturgeon's Programme for Government.

I ask you to join me in a show of unity, a cross-party bid, to call on the SNP to deliver this long overdue review.'

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: We are absolutely committed to freeing up teachers to do what they do best - teach. We have made a commitment to tackle bureaucracy and address excessive teacher workload and that will continue to be a key theme of our bold education reforms.

The terms and conditions of services for teachers, including pay, are rightly a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers.

That is the right forum to discuss future settlements and we look forward to working closely with the professional associations and employers in exploring these issues.'