Menu
Mrs Rose Galt earlier this month became the first woman to chair the General Teaching Council for Scotland. As predicted in the last issue of the Journal, Mrs Galt was elected unopposed at the new council’s first meeting· on February 4 to a post which must rate as one of the most important in Scottish education.
Mrs Galt, principal teacher of English at Greenfaulds High, Cumbernauld, is a former President of the Institute, and currently serves on council and executive. She first became an elected member of the GTC in 1984.
Elected to the vice-chairmanship at the February 4 meeting – with the support of EIS members – was Dr Tom Bone, Principal of Jordanhill College of Education. Dr Bone has served on the GTC since 1975. Ex officio, Mrs Galt becomes convener of the disciplinary committee and the probation appeals board, and Dr Bone of the investigating committee.
Convener of the finance and general purposes committee is former EIS Executive member Mr Stanley Forrest, assistant principal teacher of guidance at Clydebank High. Mr Forrest, who is a JP, was awarded an FEIS in 1978. (Three holders of the FEIS were elected to the GTC, the others being Mrs Galt and Mrs Margaret Bruce.)
At a meeting on January 30, EIS members of the GTC agreed it would not be in the council’s interests were they to use their voting power to exclude members of other organisations from convenerships. Accordingly, the supply visitation and exceptional admission committees will be convened by SSTA members – respectively Mr Thomas Wallace principal teacher of physics, Albert Secondary, Glasgow; Miss Jean Donaldson principal teacher of guidance, Auchenharvie Academy, Saltcoats; and Mr Alistair Fulton principal teacher of classics, Hillhead Head Glasgow.
Two important convenerships go to EIS members from the primary sector.
Mrs Aileen Beck, head of lnverkeithing Primary, Fife, will convene the education committee. Mrs Beck, a member of the EIS Executive, also serves on the council for National Academic Awards.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Research, interviews and substantive writing:
Adi Bloom
Design and lay-out:
Stuart Cunningham and Paul Benzie
Additional writing and research:
EIS Comms Team and assorted staff members
Printed by:
Ivanhoe Caledonian, Seafield Edinburgh
Photography:
Graham Edwards, Mark Jackson, Elaine Livingston, Toby Long, Ian Marshall, Alan McCredie, Alan Richardson, Graham Riddell, Lenny Smith, Johnstone Syer, Alan Wylie
Thanks to the many former activists and officers who gave of their time to be interviewed and taken a stroll down memory lane. And of course a very special thanks to the EIS members who created this history through their activism and commitment to the cause of Scottish Education.
© 2022 The Educational Institute of Scotland