SCOTTISH ministers came under pressure yesterday to ditch a below-inflation schools pay offer while teachers were mulling strikes.

At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said it was “time the government starts to listen and act on the negative feedback it continues to receive from those working in education.”

And in Dundee, the Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) AGM heard that teachers were “voting with their feet” and leaving the profession because of lousy pay. The union is demanding a 10 per cent wage increase to make up for a decade of pay rises lagging behind inflation.

Opening the conference, outgoing EIS president Nicola Fisher said: “A restorative pay rise is crucial to solving the recruitment and retention crisis.

“We estimate that our pay has fallen in real terms by 20 to 24 per cent. Don’t let anyone tell you 10 per cent is too much. 

“Especially when we are expected to fix everything. There is rarely an ill in society which doesn’t become the teacher’s job to fix.”

At noon today, teachers will rally outside Dundee’s Caird Hall, where the conference is taking place, in support of a 10 per cent pay rise.

Inside the hall, delegates will debate a motion mandating the union to ballot for “industrial action up to and including strike action” if “no satisfactory negotiated pay settlement is reached.”

Mr Harvie called on the Scottish government to “work with teachers instead of against them and commit urgently to meeting the demand for a fair restoration of pay.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that the pay squeeze had been “particularly difficult” for teachers, but said her government had lifted the public-sector pay cap and was addressing workload concerns.