According to the EIS, if nursery teachers are absent due to sickness or staff training, nursery school heads are having to step in, because the council provides no specific supply pool for the sector. This has meant that management duties are either neglected or carried out on weekends or evenings.
An EIS spokesman said, 'Headteachers have a broad range of management responsibilities that are having to be set aside. There are also instances where there has been no proper equipment to teach the class. This is a very real concern.'
The EIS said that one nursery school could not find a supply teacher for three weeks and the headteacher was forced to move into the class and that left a vacuum at the top. Management duties are either left, or done in the headteacher's own time.
In another case a nursery teacher had to cover for the headteacher, because the position was vacant without any supply cover for four weeks.
The EIS spokesman said, 'It is the opinion of the local EIS association that the education department is not complying with local policy on working hours and management time. There is an obligation on the part of the education authority to provide supply within four days. That does not happen.'
However, Glasgow City Council denied it was under any obligation to provide supply teachers in nursery schools. A council spokeswoman said, 'There is a shortage of nursery staff due to seasonal illnesses. We do have a pool of supply teachers, but there is no requirement to put a teacher in a nursery class, even though we usually do.
'In Glasgow there is a pool of about 2,500 supply teachers and 150 supply nursery nurses. All teachers can teach in nursery classes but there is no requirement for them to do so. Parents can take their children out of class in a case of absence.'
The EIS said it would continue to press the council on the issue and would compile figures for the number of absences left without cover in the city's nursery schools.
Last month a Scottish Executive report on the state of supply teacher provision across the country found that there are 11,500 supply teachers in Scotland, compared to a total teaching population of 52,000. Despite the total number of supply teachers, some schools still found difficulty getting cover.
The Scottish Executive is putting together a working party, including teaching unions, the inspectorate and Executive representatives, to produce national guidance on the management of supply teachers.
An Executive spokeswoman said, 'Since the repeal of the pre-school provisions of the Schools Code came into force in August of last year, there is now no longer a requirement for a trained teacher to head a nursery class. This means that if stand-in staff are required in a teacher's absence, a nursery nurse or another suitably qualified worker can take their place.'
The EIS spokesman said that the ongoing industrial action by nursery nurses belonging to the public sector union Unison was also exacerbating problems caused by the lack of supply teachers.
'The nursery nurses' strike has had an effect, although on strike days the nurseries will be closed, but it does have a knock-on impact because there is lots of catching up to do,' he added.
