The NUT was the only union representing school staff to refuse to sign the workload agreement with the Government last year. Its report, published last week, warned that 'all but a handful of primary schools have no preparation, planning and assessment (PPA) time at all'. One school surveyed offered PPA time to its staff, but only on the understanding that they would be available to cover for absent colleagues 'from within this time'.
In a telephone survey of headteachers and local education authorities, the report's author, John Atkins, found that while the agreement meant teachers no longer had to carry out 25 administrative tasks, the prospects of introducing effective PPA time by September 2005 were slim.
The report indicated a degree of paralysis among schools and LEAs, with the former waiting to see whether the latter gives them enough to fund proper teacher cover, and 'if the amount is not so great, schools will be forced to use teaching assistants'. If no extra money was forthcoming, the report suggested, headteachers would either hope to 'quietly forget the whole thing' or follow the example of two heads who said they would shut down their schools one afternoon a week to allow teachers PPA time.
Mr Atkins said LEAs had met the Government's target of a 4 per cent increase in funding per pupil, but he warned that falling rolls, particularly affecting primary schools, were causing funding difficulties. He quoted education secretary Charles Clarke's warning, delivered after this year's Budget, that 'because of falling rolls, the number of primary schools with reduced budgets - and so, possibly, staff numbers - will be significant'.
Mr Atkins suggested that funding should in future be allocated per class, rather than per pupil, to mitigate the impact of falling rolls on school finances.
The report's findings provided the ammunition for outgoing NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy to warn that schools that were already facing the spectre of a funding crisis would not be able to implement the workload reduction agreement.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said, 'We have taken steps to achieve stability in school budgets, with a 4 per cent guaranteed increase per pupil.
'Our reforms to the workforce are about freeing teachers from administrative tasks - they are not about increasing class sizes or reducing the numbers of teachers. Classroom assistants are there to assist so that children get more individual attention,' she added.