Primary school teachers' time in class may be cut

Every primary school teacher would be allowed at least a day a fortnight out of the classroom under radical proposals from their local education authority employers.

The plan is to be tabled by leaders of the local education authorities in negotiations with the Government over reducing teachers' workload.

It has already won the backing of teachers' leaders, and their employers say that if it is rejected as part of a new teacher's contract individual education authorities are likely to offer the deal to their teachers.

Graham Lane, chairman of the Local Government Association's education committee, said: "We are making a firm proposal that – as soon as possible and at the latest from September 2004 – primary school teachers should have at least 10 per cent of their working time off the timetable. This could be taken in a chunk of half a day a week or a day a fortnight."

Most secondary school teachers already have time off from teaching for marking and preparation but the practice is rare in primary schools.

Mr Lane told a rally of teachers in central London protesting about their workload that he thought the cost would be "minimal". Supply cover could be brought in to help out and there would be savings in recruitment costs as the job became more manageable and fewer teachers quit.

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, described the employers' offer as "a very big breakthrough and very welcome statement".

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said its implementation would be "absolutely essential" in reducing teachers' workload. "Quite frankly, I think we should be talking about more than 10 per cent of time," he added.

Mr Lane said he had floated the idea with Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, and her response had been "quite positive".

Detailed negotiations on the modernisation of the teaching profession will begin in earnest after the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, unveils his comprehensive spending package in a fortnight.

A report by the schoolteachers' pay review body earlier this summer urged ministers to give teachers guaranteed time off from the classroom, but failed to put a figure on the amount of time.

At the rally, teachers' unions repeated their warnings that there would be industrial action in schools if an agreement on reducing their workload failed to be reached this autumn.

Ms Morris told a conference on creativity in schools organised by the National Union of Teachers that she accepted it was difficult to fit all the Government's demands into the school day. Many schools were already fitting extracurricular activities into weekends and evenings, she added.