An article from STV News 29 January 2014 - Anger as court rules nursery headteachers need not be qualified

A teaching union has hit out after top judges ruled that nurseries did not have to employ qualified headteachers.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) had taken legal action against Glasgow City Council to prevent the local authority appointing non-teachers as heads of its nursery schools.

However, the Court of Session ruled on Wednesday that the council's policy was not unlawful.

In an opinion delivered by Lady Paton, the court determined that the council's approach was consisted with regulation three of the Requirements for Teachers (Scotland) Regulations 2005, which "requires authorities to employ only teachers registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland".

Lady Paton said: "What is important for the present case is that regulation three does not state, or even imply, that the head of a nursery school must by law be a registered teacher.

"In the result, we are not persuaded that anything in the scheme of legislation rendered the decision challenged 'unlawful'."

However, the EIS condemned the ruling and said it undermined the Scottish Government's commitment to ensuring "access to a nursery teacher" for all nursery-aged children.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The EIS continues to believe  that qualified nursery teachers are an essential part of quality education provision in nursery schools, as indeed does the Scottish Government. The EIS launched this appeal with the aim of ensuring that all nursery-aged children could have meaningful access to a teacher in their school environment.

"Sadly, this ruling today will place teacher involvement in the education of young children in nurseries under very serious threat.”

Mr Flanagan continued: “This case highlights a clear absence of enforceable legislation to ensure the Scottish Government’s promise of ‘access to a nursery teacher’ for all pre-5 children is delivered. Without any legal basis or regulation, the Scottish Government’s commitment is essentially meaningless and will allow local authorities, such as Labour-controlled Glasgow, to cut teachers out of nurseries in order to reduce costs and with little regard to quality of education provision. 

"This is an extremely worrying precedent that has been set: it highlights that urgent need for the Scottish Government to legislate to enshrine the right of all nursery children to be taught by a qualified teacher.”

Glasgow City Council welcomed the decision.

A spokeswoman said: “We welcome this sensible decision which will allow us to be able to respond more flexibly to the changing needs of families for early years education and childcare.”