Fife teachers 'stretched to breaking point' amid underreported violence and print bans

Local teachers in Fife have warned of underreported violence, school-wide print bans, and staff who are stretched to their breaking point.

Fife EIS secretary Jane McKeown told a group of nearly 300 people that schools in Fife are still “vastly under-reporting” violent incidents in classrooms.

“I’m aware of staff in my year who could be filling out five or six forms every single day,” she said.

“Somebody told me the other day she filled in 36 reports since she returned from being off unwell, and about six days later, it was up to 52 forms. That’s from one person in one school.”

She added: “The education service is trying, but their hands are tied too. We all want to solve the problem, but it’s a question of how we do it on an ever-decreasing budget.”

Jill and Chris, parents of a secondary school student, agreed that there are serious issues in school – particularly around assaults, which they believe are under-reported and hidden from view.

“I’ve had to write a letter to our head about a teacher being physically touched in class and Tik-Toked,” Jill said.

“My daughter watched an adult be assaulted in a classroom, and they’re trying to sweep it under the rug – that’s not OK.”

The number of violent school incidents has nearly tripled from pre-covid levels. It’s an issue that has been discussed repeatedly by Fife Councillors as a top priority.

“I would say that Fife is probably the best local authority in Scotland for allowing [violent incident] reporting, and that is part of the reason our figures are so high,” Ms McKeown said.

“But that is not the whole story by any manner or means. Our numbers are high because they are high, and we’re still vastly under-reporting.”

The parents urged the council to release school-specific figures about violent incidents for transparency.

“I think it’s important we know where we’re sending our children,” Chris said. “Most parents I know look beyond the education results. I’d rather my child didn’t learn as much but was safe rather than be in a school that’s dangerous.”

However, Ms McKeown and other council group leaders were hesitant to release that type of data to the public.

“My personal point of view is that I wouldn’t want to see a table of violence and aggression stats out there in public,” Ms McKeown said

“Just because a school is reporting doesn’t necessarily mean that school has the highest levels. It may be that it’s just better at reporting and is being more open. I can quote a school whose figures are very low, but I know for a fact that the actual numbers should be much higher.”

Fife’s education scrutiny convener, Kathleen Leslie, agreed with those concerns.

“I’d be very wary of taking those figures down to an individual school level,” she added.

Aside from issues of school violence, teachers and parents raised other concerns, including a total printing ban in at least one high school in Fife.

“There’s a full print ban in one high school in Fife that I’ve seen,” an unnamed supply teacher said at the meeting.

“If I want to do a good job, I print it on my husband’s home printer. Teachers are also bringing pencils in, borrowing, gathering, and [making wanted posts] on web pages,” she said.

“I don’t know if you understand just how poor the situation is.”

Another parent from the Buckhaven Primary School parent council claimed that print budgets are in short supply. He claimed several schools in Fife have already used up their printing budgets for the entire school year.

“How are we getting it so wrong with cuts when we can’t even provide paper and ink for our schools let alone anything else?” he asked.