Educational Institute of Scotland
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) is the oldest teachers' trade union in the world, having been founded in 1847 when dominies became concerned about the effect of changes to the system of education in Scotland on their professional status. The EIS is the largest teaching union in Scotland, representing 80% of the country's teachers and lecturers. it has 54,580 members. Scottish Educational Journal. The "Scottish Educational Journal" (SEJ) is the magazine of the EIS, which has been appearing, formerly in tabloid format, since ca. 1917. Fellowships. Since being granted a royal charter by Queen  Victoria, it is the only union able to award degrees. A recipient of the EIS degree is a "Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland", denoted by the post-nominal "FEIS". An early example of such a degree (awarded in December 1847) was worded as follows: Industrial action. Threats of industrial action by the EIS evoke memories for many of the long-running teacher strikes of the 1980s During the 1984-86 industrial action almost 15 million pupil days were lost .across Scotland. It was a sustained campaign of industrial action in Scottish education in oppostion to the Conservative Government . Larry Flanagan has described it as “"the first time that any group of workers, anywhere in the UK, successfully stood firm in defiance of a concerted, ideologically driven attack by the Tory government".”