Morris gives teachers ultimatum over school assistants

Estelle Morris today warns union leaders that they will scupper plans designed to reduce teachers' workloads if they refuse to back government moves to allow classroom assistants to take lessons.

In an interview with The Independent, the Secretary of State for Education tells Britain's biggest teachers' union, the National Union of Teachers: "You've come so far – don't jump overboard now." The union is opposing her plans, to be announced today.

Ms Morris warned that up to £400m of extra annual funding for schools – which would give a typical secondary school an extra £50,000 in direct grant – would be withheld if agreement cannot be reached on a comprehensive package. "If we don't drive forward as an education system to do this, I can't answer teachers' workload problems and can't provide an answer for teachers' pressures," she said. The Government is to announce its plans for the teaching profession today after more than a year of negotiations with union leaders. They were described by local education authority employers as "the greatest opportunity for modernising the teaching profession for decades".

In her interview Ms Morris spelt out key elements of the package. These include:

* a limit on the number of hours teachers are expected to cover for absent or ill colleagues, amounting to 38 hours a year by 2004;

* 10 per cent guaranteed time for preparation and assessment by 2005 – the equivalent of half a day away from the classroom every week;

* an immediate ban on 25 listed administrative tasks for teachers, such as invigilating exams and collecting dinner money.

In exchange, Ms Morris wants agreement on a radical restructuring of role of classroom assistants. She will hire an extra 50,000 this Parliament and allow them to take over lessons, stand in for absent teachers and control discipline in assemblies and on school trips. The NUT is worried this could lead to a "dumbing down" on the teaching profession.

Ms Morris defended her plans, saying: "There are a whole set of activities that teachers don't need to do.... We've already been training classroom assistants to help with numeracy and literacy in primary schools and no teacher has said 'I'm sorry, this has been a complete waste of time'."

Ministerial sources also say pupils would be better taught if a classroom assistant they know steps in to take a lesson rather than a supply teacher.

Ms Morris said there would be three categories of classroom assistants:

* administrative assistants, who would do the 25 tasks teachers are to be spared;

* behaviour and counselling specialists, who would act as mentors and look after discipline in school playground, assemblies and on trips;

* advanced classroom assistants, who would study for a special qualification and could take over a range of lessons and cover for absences.

The NUT, which is also worried about moves to allow schools more flexibility over class sizes and opening hours, looked isolated in its opposition to the plans. The National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers said it was "time to bite the bullet".