A UNION leader from East Lancashire has warned that another series of government education initiatives could mean "overload" for teachers.

David Blunkett has been announcing a series of reforms at this week's North of England Education Conference in Wigan.

But Andrew Jones, negotiating secretary of the East Lancashire branch of the NASUWT, believes the result is likely to be yet more work and responsibility for teachers.

His warning came soon after the Bishop of Blackburn made similar claims in a speech at the Oxford Conference on Education.

He said: "The Government must be careful not to overload secondary schools.

"NASUWT acknowledges the importance of the basics but if secondary schools are going to be pressurised into having a literacy hour then space has to be created elsewhere.

"I do not believe that secondary school teachers will blithely tolerate the unrelenting impositions which have been heaped on their primary colleagues in recent years. "Also, it is idle of the Government to pretend that additional national tests at 12 and 13 would be voluntary.

"The many pressures placed upon schools, backed up by the Ofsted inspection police, make a mockery of the term voluntary. The Government will have to accept that more and more teachers will teach to the test and that other areas of the curriculum might suffer as a consequence."

Mr Jones also called for safety and security to be taken into account if the government decides to introduce summer camps.

He said: "Parents often demand a higher level of supervision from other people in charge of their children than they would provide themselves.

"Teachers and other adults supervising such camps will also have to guard against the increasing tendency of youngsters to make malicious accusations against those they come to dislike."

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