Thursday 22 April 2004

Free the schools - and the teachers

The teaching union boss is understandably concerned about indiscipline in schools:
Dougie Mackie, the president of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said pupils must be left in no doubt that violence will not be tolerated in school.
The EIS is affiliated to the Scottish Trades Union Congress on whose website we can read:
Our purpose is to co-ordinate, develop and articulate the views and policies of the trade union movement in Scotland and, through the creation of real social partnership, to promote: trade unionism; equality and social justice; the creation and maintenance of high quality jobs; and the public sector delivery of services.
I don't think that there's too much of an indiscipline problem in Scotland's private schools. Indeed, that's one of their attractions to parents (and children). But the EIS is committed to the "public sector delivery of services" and As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap. If the EIS wants its members to work free from verbal and physical assault they should promote the privatisation of schools. Of course, a thriving free market in education might not require much in the way of teaching unions.