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.