TEACHERS' union leaders in Bradford were condemning classroom conditions at a national conference in Blackpool this weekend.

The National Union of Teachers - Bradford's largest teaching union - is meeting for its annual conference.

Bradford delegates have tabled a motion for the establishment of a national teachers' contract as a line of defence against escalating class sizes and teacher shortages in schools.

Bradford NUT's motion says: "Class sizes are among the largest in Europe.

"Teachers' professionalism continues to be questioned, many of our colleagues continue to be employed properly on fixed-term contracts and many others annually face the threat of redundancy.

"Recent research evidence also shows teachers to be one of the most highly-stressed occupational groups and subject to a high and increasing level of demoralisation.

"The most effective way to remedy this is for the union to set our minimum standards of employment for teachers and to fight for the implementation of a national contract for teachers."

Secretary Ian Murch said: "Our experience is of the increasing difficulties that we find teachers are in in terms of their workload being unmanageable.

"A lot of the problems are arising now as individual schools are coming under increasing pressure to deliver and more Government initiatives.

"Teachers are regularly working more than 50 hours a week and that is not healthy for people.

"We can counter that by stopping more of these new initiatives or we can have contracts that say how many hours a teacher should work."

The Bradford branch will push for action, including strikes, unless contracts are introduced by the Government.

Other action could include refusing to teach classes over certain sizes, refusing to cover for absent colleagues, ensuring teachers all have breaks of one-hour at lunch-time and ensuring that teachers are not working more than a notional 35-hour week. The motion was due to be debated today.

A Bradford delegate has seconded a further motion to be heard tomorrow which highlights the serious shortfalls in funding that are affecting education and proposing measures to improve provision.

The motion calls on the Government to outline a strategy for the future funding of education, including plans to tackle the massive problem of crumbling school buildings.

No changes to the education system in Ilkley should be made until adequate provision has been made to accommodate all the children involved in the shake-up, said Ilkley MP Ann Cryer.

During a meeting with Bradford's education bosses, Mrs Cryer said: "I made it quite clear that it does not go ahead unless there is an adequate amount of money available to cope with the changes."

She said that middle schools would have to have extra facilities to cope with four-year-olds, including specially-designed toilets and extra security measures

In principal, Mrs Cryer said she was in favour of the change from a three-tier to a two-tier system of education but was concerned about the way the change was being implemented, particularly in Ilkley.

"I feel uneasy about the situation in Ilkley. We are going to finish up with a Church of England Primary School, a Catholic Primary School and a smaller Primary School."

Ideally Mrs Cryer said she would like to see four primary schools in Ilkley, including an expanded Ashlands and a new All Saints occupying the previously-earmarked site.

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