Organisation Motions

Created on: 22 May 2025 | Last modified: 07 Jun 2025


Motions

Resolutions

42. Council

That this AGM reaffirms that the aims of the ‘Stand Up for Quality Education’ campaign are fundamental to improve teachers' working conditions and health, safety and wellbeing at work and by so doing, the quality of learning experiences for pupils.

AGM acknowledges that some of the aims of the ‘Stand Up for Quality Education’ campaign require significant additional investment, resources and cultural change within education and that may take some years to achieve in full.

AGM further acknowledges that some aims of the campaign might only be achieved by industrial action.

AGM, therefore, instructs Council to:

  1. continue to commit to the ‘Stand Up for Quality Education’ campaign the resources required to make progress on prioritised campaign workstreams in order for them to be realised as successfully and expeditiously as possible.
  2. ensure ongoing industrial action readiness of the EIS and its members. 

Carried

43. Council

That this AGM calls on Council to continue to campaign for a significant reduction in members’ workload as part of the Stand Up for Quality Education campaign and, as part of this campaign, to provide school branches with a resource to help branches identify and reduce workload pressures.

Carried

44. EIS FELA

That this AGM opposes any attempts to privatise education and training in Scotland. AGM instructs Council to campaign at the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government against privatisation in education and to demand that all of Scotland’s post-16 publicly funded further education institutions and tertiary institutions are fully incorporated within the public sector.

Carried

45. Council

That this AGM deplores the rise of far-right political parties and policies at home and abroad. This AGM asserts that the divisive, profit-driven policies of all far-right political parties fundamentally oppose the interests of members and the core values of the Institute.

This AGM:

  1. sends its solidarity to international colleagues who are campaigning against the election of far-right political parties or populists; or who are fighting against the implementation of far-right policies in their countries, especially in the United States.
  2. instructs Council to learn from the campaigning experiences of international colleagues against far-right political parties to help inform our campaigning against far-right political parties here in Scotland.

Amendment 1 Edinburgh Local Association

Add between ‘international’ and ‘colleagues’ in part (b): “and UK-based”.

Amendment 2 Edinburgh Local Association

Add at the end: ‘That this AGM further resolves to investigate and report on strategies and resources designed by the STUC relating to workplace and community organising against the far-right as a result of resolutions passed at this year’s STUC Congress.’

Carried

46. Glasgow Local Association

That this AGM agrees that every teacher in Scotland, including newly qualified teachers, should have the security of permanent employment. Therefore, this AGM instructs Council to investigate and report on the number of teachers in each Local Authority on “zero hours” or supply contracts over the past 5 years to determine:

  1. The trends in the use of these contracts.
  2. If these contracts are being used to replace core staff where there is an ongoing shortfall or demand for permanent posts.

Amendment Inverclyde Local Association

Insert ‘post-induction year’ after ‘newly qualified teachers’. 

Insert ‘should they so wish.’ after ‘employment.’

Carried

47. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to find out and report on the number of temporary teaching posts as a percentage of teacher numbers across all authorities in Scotland over the last 5 years, broken down, where possible, to maternity, paternity, long term absence and covering another vacancy. 

Carried

48. Council

That this AGM calls on Council to campaign to end the unacceptable level of precarity of employment of teachers in Scotland including, but not limited to, campaigning for the provision of additional funding to local authorities ringfenced for the recruitment of additional permanently employed teachers.

Carried

49. North Ayrshire Local Association

That this AGM notes that Scottish Government and Local Authority Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) can be useful metrics but that they should be understood as national or area averages and that these ratios may be different in individual schools. AGM asserts that PTRs are not synonymous with average class sizes. AGM instructs Council to produce a briefing paper on Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) for Local Associations to support them in campaigning against local authority cuts.

Carried

50. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to commission independent research into the causes of violent and aggressive behaviour perpetrated by children and young people aged 3-18 in schools in Scotland and to consider whether, and if so how, to use the findings as part of t he Stand Up for Quality Education Campaign.

Amendment Edinburgh Local Association

Add after ‘schools’: “and Early Learning and Childcare settings”.

Carried

51. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to adopt a set of fundamental principles on digital technology, including AI, building on the principles set out in the advice developed by the OECD and Education International, “Opportunities, guidelines and guardrails for effective and equitable use of AI in education”.

Furthermore, this AGM resolves to campaign for the Scottish Government to convene a cross-sector commission of key education stakeholders, including the EIS and other relevant trade unions, to develop a shared value position on the future of AI in education and a set of guiding principles for the use of AI in education.

Carried

52. Glasgow Local Association

That this AGM instruct the EIS to cease using Meta social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, and delete its accounts. 

Amendment 1 Council

Delete ‘, and delete its accounts’.

Amendment 2 Glasgow Local Association

Delete “and delete its accounts” and, between ‘platforms’ and ‘including’, add ‘for public facing communications’.

Falls

53. Scottish Borders, Glasgow and Edinburgh Local Associations

That this AGM instructs Council to stop using the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and delete its account(s). 

Amendment to Motion 53

Delete ‘and delete its account(s)’.

Falls

54. North Lanarkshire Local Association

That this AGM calls upon Council to introduce the role of supply teacher union representative in each Local Association. 

Carried

55. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to organise a series of regional, in-person hustings events across Scotland, and a national online hustings event, focusing on Education, in the three weeks leading up to 7 May 2026.

Amendment to Motion 55

Add at the end after ‘2026’: “or within any other timeline deemed more practical, or more strategically beneficial, by EIS Council”.

Carried

56. EIS FELA and Fife Local Association

That this AGM:

  1. acknowledges the efforts of the TU movement in extending moral and practical solidarity to the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, where almost 50,000 deaths have been recorded, including Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians;
  2. instructs Council to develop professional exchange between teachers in Scotland and teachers in Gaza; and
  3. agrees to:
    • send, when it is safe to arrange, a solidarity delegation to Gaza to contact educationalists and students with a message of support
    • establish links or twinning between teachers 
    • establish links with teaching unions in Gaza
    • promote cultural exchange.

Amendment EIS FELA

Add ‘and lecturers’ following ‘between teachers’, in point b) and further add ‘and lecturers’ following ‘and teachers’.

Carried

57. North Lanarkshire Local Association

That this AGM instruct Council to call for the children of Gaza to be given priority for refugee status in the UK to escape war and access their right to education.

Carried

58. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to investigate and report on how the EIS learning resource on Israel-Palestine could be updated.

Carried

59. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to:

  1. Oppose in principle the presence of representatives of arms companies in Scottish schools and Further and Higher Education establishments at events such as Science Fairs or Careers Fairs;
  2. Adopt a working definition of ‘arms companies’ as those listed on the website of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as ‘the top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world’;
  3. Produce a guidance document offering EIS Local and Self-Governing Associations and their members practical steps they can take to voice opposition to the presence of such companies’ representatives in their establishments;
  4. Send a link to the SIPRI list every year to all EIS members as it is updated, along with the guidance document and a reiteration of the EIS policy position.

Carried

60. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to ensure that no representative of Reform UK is given a place on the platform or panel at any EIS-organised event. 

Carried

61. Edinburgh Local Association

That this AGM resolves to call on the Scottish Government and Education Scotland to replace the term 'Political Literacy' with 'Education for Democracy and Peace' as a Core Competency within Curriculum for Excellence.

Carried

62. Dumfries and Galloway Local Association

That this AGM resolves that the EIS will affiliate to the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland.

Remitted

63. South Lanarkshire Local Association

That this AGM notes the increasing severity of climate breakdown, with 2024 seeing record-breaking temperatures, extreme weather events, and worsening biodiversity loss and acknowledges the Scottish Government’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2045 and the role education must play in addressing the climate crisis.

This AGM further acknowledge the vital role of educators in equipping young people with the knowledge, skills, and agency to respond to the climate emergency, along with the need for greater
investment in climate education, professional learning opportunities, and sustainable infrastructure in Scottish schools, colleges, and universities.

AGM resolves to lobby the Scottish Government and local authorities for increased funding and resources to support climate education and sustainable infrastructure in all educational institutions, and ensure that climate education and sustainability are central to professional learning opportunities provided by the EIS.

Carried

64. Renfrewshire Local Association

That this AGM instructs Council to adopt more sustainable merchandise practices in future campaigns by moving away from specific slogan-related merchandise towards a more sustainable and eco-friendlier model with the aim of reducing waste and minimising the union’s impact on the environment.

Carried

65. Renfrewshire Local Association

That this AGM instructs Council to lobby to provide free and available safe spaces for teachers to secure bikes at work.

Amendment EIS FELA

Add ‘and lecturers’ following ‘for teachers’.

Carried

66. Falkirk Local Association

That this AGM instructs council to investigate and report on the use of School Buildings formally held under service concession arrangements, as collateral for borrowing by Local Authorities as part of current and future education capital plans and report on any potential implications this might have on future capital expenditure or operating costs in Scotland's schools.

Carried

67. Renfrewshire Local Association

That this AGM instructs headquarters to supply and maintain individual devices, or laptops, to all Local Secretaries where more than one person shares the role which may necessitate purchasing additional devices as there is currently only provision for one device to be supplied to each Local Association.

Withdrawn