Nursery World - Cash limits will stifle PPA policy, says NUT (1)

Budget constraints will mean that most primary schools in England and Wales will be unable to afford to allow their teachers to spend 10 per cent of their time on preparation under the workload reduction agreement, a report commissioned by the National Union of Teachers has claimed.

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.

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