Dundee secondary teachers to strike over department head changes

Dundee secondary school teachers will stage a one-day strike this month over council plans to replace department heads with a new faculty system.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union voted by 88% to 12% to strike on 22 June over the move.

Dundee City Council said faculty models were in place in most local authority areas and benefited young people.

The EIS said the plan would "remove the vital experience offered by subject specialist principal teachers".

The union said a council statement this week re-emphasising its plan was an "act of provocation".

It said the statement "seems to have been deliberately planned" to coincide with the union's annual general meeting (AGM) in Dundee on Thursday.

The EIS has now withdrawn an invitation for Dundee Lord Provost Bill Campbell to attend the AGM.

The council said faculties bring together families of subjects headed by curriculum leaders, rather than the current system of principal teachers for each individual subject.

'Damaging consequences'

Faculties could include Sciences, Social Studies, Languages, and Health and Wellbeing.

Recruitment for the new faculty heads is currently under way.

The council said the change was agreed by councillors three years ago, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: "Dundee Council's plans would remove the vital experience offered by subject specialist principal teachers from our schools, with long-term damaging consequences for education in Dundee and for the young people in its schools.

"Teachers do not take strike action lightly, but they will do so to defend the quality of education for Dundee's young people."

The council's children and families' convener Stewart Hunter said the authority was "hoping and willing" to continue talks with the unions.

He said: "Head teachers have been clear with us that this is what they want for their schools.

"They believe that faculties, tailored to their own schools, will benefit their young people."