Created on: 03 Sep 2026
The EIS has responded to the Parliamentary statement by Education Secretary Màiri McAllan, which followed the publication of the Programme for Government, highlighting that the priority must always be increasing support for Scottish education and enhancing the learning experience for young people in schools.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, "The Programme for Government, and yesterday’s statement by Cabinet Secretary Màiri McAllan, have provided a broad outline of the Scottish Government’s plans and priorities for Scottish education.
"There were many encouraging elements contained within the proposals, such as additional funding for breakfast clubs, the further expansion of free school meal entitlement, and the removal of school meal debt to ease the cost of living burden on families.
"We await further detail on the specifics of these proposals, but very much welcome the intent behind them in the context of the persistence of the poverty-related achievement and attainment gap."
Ms Bradley continued, "We also welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s acknowledgement of the workload pressures teachers face and the need to reduce bureaucracy, in addition to cutting class contact time from August 2027.
"This must be an urgent priority, with teachers at breaking point and recruitment and retention such a challenge, particularly in Secondary."
Ms Bradley further continued, "Similarly, the stated commitment from the Scottish Government to increasing the level of support for young people with Additional Support Needs is welcome but must be more than rhetoric and actually felt in practice with the provision of additional resources – a call the EIS has been making for over a decade.
"With 43% of pupils in our schools now having an identified additional support need, the imperative for investment in both mainstream and special school settings is more acute than ever: more specialist ASN teachers and pupil support staff; greater access at the point of need to allied support services, such a speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and CAMHS; a reversal in the decline of GTCS registered teachers in nurseries - all are urgently needed.
"The EIS is also clear that capping class sizes at a maximum of 20 would also be a major step in the right direction.
"Long-term, strategic investment of this kind would also help address the serious and persistent problem of disruptive, violent and aggressive behaviour that teachers, school staff and pupils experience on a daily basis. As the First Minister highlighted more generally, the focus must be on early intervention and prevention."
Ms Bradley added, "Other positives in the Programme for Government included a commitment to improving social cohesion, including through steps to tackle all forms of racism and misogyny in society.
"These are critical issues, with both online and in-person abuse aimed at minority groups and at women and girls, including in our schools, reaching epidemic proportion in some sections of society.
"As the Scottish Government correctly identifies, education is key to tackling these issues and education for equality and democracy must be a priority within the school curriculum, with the aim of building a better, fairer and more equal society for all."
On the references to curriculum reform, Ms Bradley said, "An issue requiring further clarification is the Scottish Government’s intent with regards to significant curricular reform.
"It remains essential that the whole profession can engage meaningfully in the change process with collegiate rather than top-down approaches, these being carefully planned, strongly encouraged and fully supported through the allocation of protected Inset time for this work.
"The EIS is clear that major reform cannot be delivered off the backs of already overworked teachers."
Ms Bradley finally added, "It is important, also, that the Scottish Government understands that schools and education are about so much more than attainment, qualifications and results, whether those be academic or vocational, homegrown or derived from PISA tests; and that real success when it comes to education is not quickly and easily measurable."