SCOTTISH teachers must be “on guard” against the marketisation of schools, National Education Union joint president Kiri Tunks said yesterday.

In her sororal address to the Education Institute Scotland AGM, Ms Tunks said teachers north of the border should be in no doubt that the academies programme in England had been “a waste of money and an attack on democracy.”

She detailed the “absolute outrage” of school budget cuts in England, and noted that the Scottish education system still had many professional standards in place which have been eroded elsewhere.

“We look on in envy at some of the things you have that we in England have lost,” she told delegates. “Seeing what you have here … gives us hope that we can win them back.”

But she said teachers across Britain were facing “many of the same issues” including pay restraint and rising workload.

“You need to be on your guard,” she said. “Do not believe it when they say academies work for us — they don’t.”

The NEU has a small number of members in Scotland who were previously in the ATL but the NUT, its other predecessor, organised only in England and Wales.