Teachers should suspend their strike action while wage negotiations continue to allow schools to remain open, the education secretary said.
Shirley-Anne Somerville called for “more compromises” as students approach exam season.
Members of the EIS union have been waging rolling strikes for three weeks, affecting two boroughs each day.
The union accuses the Scottish Government of “complete lack of urgency” to end the dispute.
- “No new offer” in Scottish teachers’ pay dispute
- Scottish teachers begin a wave of rolling strikes
- Preliminary rounds postponed due to strikes by secondary school teachers
The last day of the current promotion takes place in Inverclyde and Shetland on Monday.
And the EIS has refused to rule out further strikes during the review period, saying its strategy will be kept “under review”.
The education secretary previously said there would be no new salary offer for teachers and that the 10% pay rise the union is asking for is prohibitive.
The current 5% offer includes increases of up to 6.85% for the lowest paid employees.
Ms Somerville told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show that local government agency Cosla and the unions “remain somewhat distant”.
But she called for further talks in the coming week.
“The union colleagues have their strike mandate and I absolutely respect that.
“But what we have seen, as we have seen in other sectors, is a suspension and no further strike dates while talks continue.
“I’ve asked the unions to look into this – they have so far refused.
She added: “I hope that everyone involved can agree that we do not want trials to be suspended.
“As you might expect, the Scottish Government is working with local government and the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) to ensure emergencies are in place.
“But I think, for the good of children, young people and parents across the country, it wouldn’t be too difficult for unions to say that we absolutely respect the right of children and young people to be able to take their exams and have no threats about who hover over them.”
EIS payroll chief Des Morris, who is a member of the union’s negotiating team, said the government’s stance has not changed over the six months of wage negotiations.
He told The Sunday Show: “It should come as no surprise that our members are on picket lines.
“We want this dispute to be resolved as quickly and promptly as possible. But we are keeping an eye on our industrial action strategy.
“The data we have is publicly available.
“It is up to the Scottish Government and Cosla to back their public statements about compromise and movement with actions to match those in the room.”
Scottish Labor has accused the government of “doing nothing to win back the trust that teachers and parents have lost”.
The party’s education spokesman, Michael Marra, said: “While the cabinet secretary is attacking teachers on television, her government is bringing nothing new to the table in the negotiations.
“It has now been months since an offer was made and the unions have nothing more to say to their members.
“Unless a solution is found soon, our children will miss out on an even more important education and our teachers will continue to feel undervalued and overworked – all because the SNP is unwilling to find a compromise that works for everyone.”
Scottish Conservative Education spokesman Stephen Kerr said Ms Somerville had “again passed the buck to the teaching unions in trying to resolve this dispute, rather than acknowledging that it is their job to break the deadlock”.
He added: “The public will rightly wonder why Shirley-Anne Somerville’s students and parents are treated with such contempt.
“The responsibility lies with the SNP government to resolve this so that students approaching the important exams can have the stable education they rightly deserve.”
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