Teachers say goodbye to the class register

Teachers returning to the classroom this week will be barred by law from carrying out a range of administrative duties - such as collecting dinner money and photocopying - under a radical deal agreed with ministers to reduce their workloads.

However, the price of their new-found freedom is likely to be a shortage of new books and essential equipment. Head teachers will have to reduce spending on these items in order to hire classroom assistants to take over administrative work, according to head teachers' organisations.

This first stage of a three-year government package to reduce teachers' workloads comes into force at the start of the new term.

The ban on asking teachers to carry out purely administrative duties has already been written into new contracts for more than 400,000 teachers in England and Wales.

The deal has been signed by all the teachers' unions apart from the biggest, the National Union of Teachers, and all unions representing non-teaching staff.

Leaders of the NUT are worried the agreement could be thrown into confusion by the funding crisis which has forced many schools this summer to lay off classroom assistants and teaching staff. A survey published last Friday revealed that 3,000 teaching jobs had been cut in secondary schools alone.

However, the NUT and the Government are in agreement over one thing - whatever happens, teachers should not be bogged down in administration.

Government guidance says all teachers should ask themselves three questions about work: Need it be done at all? Is the task of an administrative or clerical nature? Does it call for the exercise of a teacher's professional skills or judgement?

If the answers are "yes", "yes" and "no", that task must be transferred from them.

The only difference between the NUT and the Government is in areas where teachers may still want to hold on to tasks considered by the agreement to be the domain of classroom assistants.

One of these is over classroom displays - with many primary school teachers in particular believing they should retain the right to put up displays of their pupils' work because they will be able to single out those who need more motivation for praise.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, warned that schools may find it difficult to implement the agreement because of budget cuts.

"There will be schools where there is inadequate funding," he said. "They won't have been able to make plans to transfer the tasks.

"The new teachers' contracts, however, mean that they will be obliged to do so, so they may have to make cuts in other budgets.

"It would be books and equipment - the grant to the science department to buy new books, say - that may suffer. We have been concerned that the necessary finance just isn't there to implement it, but it has to be done."

The deal is the first in a series of measures to allow teachers to focus more on teaching. Teachers will also be guaranteed up to 10 per cent of their working day out of the classroom - to help them prepare and mark pupils' work.

The time teachers spend covering for absent colleagues will also be limited to 38 hours a year. These two parts of the agreement will be phased in over the next two years.

The deal is just one of a number of changes to the school system this autumn. Ministers are also to send behaviour consultants into secondary schools to try to lessen disruption by pupils.

A national network of behaviour experts will be available to give teachers tips on how to control anti-social behaviour while keeping control of the rest of the class.

The Government is also to increase the number of specialist schools, with 400 being created from the start of the new term. They will specialise in subjects including sports, modern languages, business and engineering.

Nine new City Academies - inner-city schools supported by private sponsorship - will also be created. One is to be on the site of the school where Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, used to teach more than 20 years ago - Willesden High in Brent, north-west London.

The schools will be encouraged to innovate with the curriculum: the Capital City Academy (on the Willesden High site) has been given the blessing of ministers to introduce the International Baccalaureate rather than A-levels as the main exam for sixth-formers.

Ticked off: 21 tasks Sir no longer has to perform

1 Collect dinner money from pupils and parents.

2 Investigate pupil absences.

3 Do bulk photocopying.

4 Type or create word-processed versions of manuscript material or produce revisions of further versions.

5 Carry out the word-processing, copying or distribution of letters to parents and pupils.

6 Produce class lists on the basis of information provided by teachers.

7 Keep or file records, including those based on data supplied by teachers.

8 Prepare, set up or take down classroom displays in accordance with decisions taken by teachers.

9 Produce an analysis of attendance figures.

10 Produce an analysis of examination figures.

11 Collate pupil reports.

12 Administer work experience (this does not cover selecting placements or supporting pupils).

13 Invigilate public or internal examinations*.

14 Administer cover for absent teachers.

15 Set up or maintain computer technology or software.

16 Order school supplies or equipment.

17 Carry out cataloguing, preparing, issuing or maintaining materials and equipment or stocktaking.

18 Take verbatim notes or produce formal minutes of meetings.

19 Organise or submit bids (for funding, specialist school status and so on).

20 Transfer hand written data about pupils into computerised school management systems.

21 Manage the data in computerised school management systems.

The ban on invigilating exams is the only one not to be introduced this term, but will be implemented later.