Monica Lennon MSP raised a question in Scottish Parliament today concerning the ongoing dispute at City of Glasgow College, whose welding lecturers have been on discontinuous strike since March 2026 to put pressure on the College to provide RPE. The strikers simply want RPE and to return to work to teach.

Join our Demo this Thursday and help us STOP THE CUTS at GCU. We will be joined by @ScottishTUC Roz Foyer and @The_TUC Paul Nowak speaking to our rally from 09.30am! Save the 100🛟✊

Members at GCU were on strike today alongside our colleagues in UCU with further support from GCU Student Solidarity. We will have further strikes this Wednesday and Thursday with a rally at Thursday's picket! More info on Thursday's action to follow🛟📣

Cutting 100 jobs will undermine the quality of education at GCU. We know it, staff know it, the students know it. GCU management, it's time to take compulsory redundancies off the table. Stop the cuts. Save the 100🛟

Last weekend, striking welding lecturers joined the EIS at the SNP Party Conference. Why won't City of Glasgow College provide our members with air fed RPE? And when will the Scottish Government intervene in this dispute?

That concludes the EIS Fringe event at the confernce. Thank you to all in attendance, those who asked questions and the DFM for her contributions.

Andrea Bradley says, in order to enhance ASN provision we need to deliver a collection of measures such as additional teachers, smaller class sizes and additional support staff.

DFM Jenny Gilruth says we need to look at how we can protect education spending within local government spending.

We move onto the Q&A section, where the panel are asked about public sector reform, the pisa results and the priorities for education.

Jenny Gilruth: Curriculum reform we have to work with the profession, as our teachers know our kids.

Jenny Gilruth: PISA scores, I hear some of the challenges, but we should be careful about applying judgment to the PISA scores and not looking at other things such as our exam scores that were brilliant this year.

Jenny Gilruth on misinformation says, Our teachers are on the frontline when it comes to disinformation. They are seeing it their classrooms...I worry about the expectation we have on our teachers to try and fix all of society's ills.

DFM Jenny Gilruth: You have to, as a minister in Government work very closely with trade unions.

We now hand over to DFM Jenny Gilruth.

Andrea Bradley: The EIS has our eyes on that prize and hopes that the SNP government can share our vision and work in partnership towards achieving it. Can we do it? Yes – we can!