After a 7.5% pay rise teachers now offered 'four-day week' in SNP bid to head off strike action

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth announced plans for reduced contact time with pupils, which could include later start times, longer breaks or restructured school days.

Ms Gilruth laid the groundwork for the announcement in an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday, in which she said she would consider later school days.

However, her announcement has caused fury among teaching unions.

Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, expressed “deep disappointment” the plans had been revealed to the media before the national negotiating body.

The EIS and NASUWT unions are currently balloting members on strike action over a failure to reduce class contact time by 90 minutes.

Nationalists made a promise at the last Holyrood election to ring fence extra time for teachers to spend away from pupils on lesson preparation and marking.

Ms Gilruth said her plans demonstrate a “statement of intent" to teachers.

She said: "It is a statement of intent to empower Scotland's teachers with the time, trust and tools they need to deliver transformative learning.

"By investing in teacher capacity, the aim is to create richer learning experiences and raise standards for every learner.

"Working together, we can shape a future where reduced class contact time is not just a logistical change but a catalyst for deeper professional engagement, improved wellbeing, and better outcomes for every learner.”

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the promised 90-minute reduction in class contact time was a "red line for teachers”.

Both the EIS and the NASUWT unions said teachers should be trusted to use this time as they see fit.

Ms Bradley told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the government's proposals would not see an end to threatened strike action.

She added they did "not amount to a plan that can be properly scrutinised" and said it would not affect the EIS strike ballot.

In a statement, the EIS said: “The Scottish Government plans have been shared with the media, and will be announced at a meeting of headteachers and depute headteachers, before they have been presented to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), the agreed tripartite negotiating forum for teachers’ terms and conditions.”

Ms Bradley said the union would wait for more details to come from the SNCT.

“Almost five years after the promise was made to reduce teacher workload and almost a year after teachers were given assurances that proposals for implementation of the commitment would be on the table, it is deeply disappointing that the Scottish Government has made related announcements via the media before appropriate discussion at the SNCT where teachers are represented by their unions,” she said.

She went on to call the 90 minute reduction in class contact time a “red line” for teachers.

NASUWT also said teachers must have autonomy to decide how the time is used.

A spokesman said: "Our members are frustrated at the ongoing delays in the delivery of a clear Scottish government promise to them, which is why we have opened a ballot on industrial action on this matter."

Shadow cabinet secretary for education and skills Miles Briggs said: “The SNP have woefully failed to provide the extra teachers they promised, so the ability to actually deliver reduced contact time for teachers remains unfeasible.

“The education secretary has been asleep at the wheel, and until she wakes up and addresses the fundamental problems, this gimmick will merely short-change students while doing nothing to provide real support for teachers.”