The teaching unions were angry to hear that Highland Council was looking at shortening the school day to save money on teachers’ salaries.
People attending the Highland Council’s budget consultation meetings are being told children in other European countries do better than Scottish pupils – yet spend less time in the classroom.
The consultation document asks whether the council should explore this further, including the implications for childcare, either by starting the day later, finishing earlier or lengthening breaks during the school day.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the teachers’ union NASUWT, said: “Once again a council looking for cuts is turning their attention to hard working and committed teachers.
“It is unacceptable to propose to make savings by making further cuts to teachers’ salaries.
“Teachers and other public sector workers are constantly being asked to pay the price of a financial situation they did not create.”
She added that teachers in Scotland were already paid on average £7,000 per year less than colleagues elsewhere in the UK.
Ms Keates said: “Proposals of this kind will no nothing to address the already increasing unattractiveness of teaching as a career in Scotland where, NASUWT research indicates, over half of teachers have seriously considered quitting the profession altogether.
“Attacks on teachers are attacks on children and young people and they put in jeopardy the high quality of education provision.”
And a spokesman for another teachers’ union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, said: “As with all consultations of this type, the EIS would urge both parents and teachers to make their views known, so that the best educational interests of pupils are at the fore throughout the consultation process.”