The McCrone deal gave guarantees on teacher pay and conditions Scottish ministers have announced a review of the size and cost of the country’s teaching workforce, under a re-examination of the McCrone deal.
The agreement, implemented in 2001 to modernise the profession, will be reviewed by Stirling University principal Prof Gerry McCormac.
It will also consider whether McCrone is suited to the newly-introduced Curriculum for Excellence.
Teachers currently work 35 hours, with 22.5 hours spent teaching.
Announcing the review, Education Secretary Mike Russell said: “Ten years on from the landmark report of the McCrone inquiry, and the agreement on pay and conditions which followed, the time is right for a fundamental review of the changes it has engineered.
“McCrone has undoubtedly delivered a well-paid, highly-qualified, professional workforce and we now have tens of thousands of talented teachers teaching hundreds of thousands of better-educated pupils.
“However a lot has changed in the past decade, most notably the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, which provides new challenges for teachers and pupils, and we need to ensure we continue to attract the right kind of people into the profession to deliver this new approach to learning and teaching.”
The remit of the McCrone review will consider whether:
The agreement is delivering all the benefits that were intended for both teachers and pupilsIt is suited to the delivery of Curriculum for ExcellenceIt attracts the most-talented people into the teaching professionThe cost and size of the teacher workforce in the context of the current financial climate.
The original McCrone deal agreed between councils and teaching unions, guaranteed teachers more than 12 hours a week to spend marking and preparing lessons in school.
Prof McCormac said: “The review group will approach this challenging piece of work with an open mind.
“We will consider the views of all with an interest in Scottish education and make recommendations as to how future arrangements can be improved to achieve the expected outcomes.”
Scottish Labour accused Mr Russell of ‘abandoning proper practice’.
It said it appeared that he had made his mind up already and wanted to cut teachers’ pay and conditions.
Labour’s education spokesman Des McNulty said: “Teachers will rightly see this move as an attack on their conditions of service.
“So far Mr Russell has not indicated when this review will report and he also needs to provide clarity on that.”
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Margaret Smith MSP welcomed the McCormac review.
She said: “Liberal Democrats firmly believe that quality teachers are absolutely central to the delivery of a world class Scottish education system
“We are proud that many of the components of the McCrone deal such as the guaranteed induction year for new graduates have worked effectively, but also know that not all of them have been properly delivered.
“It is time now to build on the successes of McCrone and it is essential that this review is driven by what is in the best interests of Scottish education and not as a purely cost cutting exercise.”
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