Created on: 05 Jan 2026
With the dawning of the year 2026, it is now five years since the Scottish Government made its 2021 Manifesto promise to tackle excessive levels of teacher workload by employing 3,500 additional teachers and reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time commitment to 21 hours per week.
With the next Scottish Parliament election now less than six months away, little to no tangible progress has been made towards the delivery of these promises made by the Scottish Government.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), is currently running a statutory industrial action ballot of its members over the non-delivery of the promised actions to address teacher workload. The ballot closes next week.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “As we arrive at the traditional ending of the festive period, Scotland’s teachers will be hoping that the Scottish Government reaches an epiphany over their teacher workload promises.
"Five years ago, in their pre-election manifesto, the current Scottish Government made hard and fast commitments to Scotland’s teachers and the Scottish electorate, that they would take definitive action to tackle excessive teacher workload pressures.
"Those promises, based around reducing teachers’ class contact time and recruiting 3,500 additional teachers, have not come close to being met.”
Ms Bradley continued, “Scotland’s teachers have waited five long years, overburdened by continuing excessive workload, for the Scottish Government and their local authority partners to make good on those promises.
"The current statutory industrial action ballot, and the prospect of imminent industrial action in our schools, are direct results of the inaction on the part of the Scottish Government and COSLA on teacher workload.”
Ms Bradley added, “Epiphany is a time that is associated with the giving of gifts. The only gifts that Scotland’s teachers want to see this year is the same ones that they have been promised for the past five years – action to reduce their crippling, unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable levels of workload by the permanent employment of the additional teachers that were promised and a concrete plan for the delivery of the reduction in teachers’ class contact time that was promised.
"Scotland’s schools, Scotland’s teachers, Scotland’s young people and the Scottish electorate as a whole, expect and deserve the promises made to Scottish education to be delivered.”