Already great play has been made of apparently long holidays

Already great play has been made of apparently long holidays. Account must be taken, however, not just of annual hours, but the intensity of involvement. In most occupations, however hectic, it is possible to take a breather. In teaching, especially with current staffing levels, there is no let-up from the time the pupils set foot in the school to the time they go home.That is why it is essential to have more teachersto bring a better balance to the working week.

It is likely that teachers in independent schools work just as hard as those in maintained schools, but because the demands are perceived as reasonable they tend not to count hours. Recruitment and retention are easier, helped by the continual inflow from the state sector.The Government’s interest in workload seems mainly aimed at heading off a revolt by teachers. With promises of more teaching assistants and cutting red tape, and some finely-spun statistics, it may succeed. But it is doubtful whether the lot of pupils or teachers will be much improved. Again, it seems, the Government is more concerned with the politics than education.The writer is the Sydney Jones Professor of Education and director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Liverpooleducation independent.co.uk. Just 24 hours after the Government let it be known it was giving the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority more teeth to bring poorly performing exam boards into line, the authority issued a statement saying it had been unable to deliver the national curriculum tests to schools on time this year. And it was “less than half a per cent” of schools that received their test papers late (half a per cent is 100 schools and potentially around 3,000 children).

But some fundamental questions need answering before the education world can have confidence in the authority’s ability to carry out its enhanced role effectively.Has it, like the exam boards, got more on its plate than it can handle? Edexcel’s original crime, which incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister earlier this year, was to put an unanswerable question in a maths paper by mistake. Is that a more heinous crime than failing to deliver test papers on time?We also question the authority’s judgement in admitting its error at 5.15pm on a Friday afternoon when there had been a major rail disaster. If a Government special adviser had taken that decision, all hell would have broken loose. Another question, raised by the Secondary Heads Association, is whether it is right to allow the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to set the tests and act as the regulatory body for exam boards as well.The authority is being subjected to a quinquennial review at present.