News

ATL rejects Workload Challenge and launches its own investigation into teacher workload

Having rejected the government's response to the Workload Challenge, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers is to launch its own investigation into the causes of high workload in the profession.

Delegates at the union's annual conference in Liverpool approved plans to investigate the tasks that are taking up increasing amounts of teacher and support staff time.

Moving a motion on workload, ATL member Christopher Dutton, from Wiltshire, warned that teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers, quoting figures showing that in the last 12 months almost 50,000 qualified teachers have quit.

He told delegates: "Many teachers are working in excess of 60 hours a week which is simply not healthy and simply not acceptable."

ATL was among the unions that attacked the Department for Education's response to the Workload Challenge earlier this year for its lack of "tangible" actions to tackle the issues raised.

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