Secondary-school teachers in Scotland have voted by 95% to 5% in favour of industrial action over concerns about their "excessive" workload.
Members of the EIS teaching union are now set to take action short of strike action and could refuse to co-operate with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
READ MORE: Teachers attack SNP plans to reduce role of councils in running of schools
Teachers have repeatedly spoken out against the impact the introduction of new exams has had on the workload.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: "This ballot result reflects the frustration of Scotland's secondary teachers over the excessive assessment demands being placed on them and their pupils, particularly around unit assessments at National 5 and Higher; and the EIS now has a very clear mandate to implement an immediate work-to-contract in relation to SQA activity."
A spokeswoman for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "very disappointed" with the ballot result.
READ MORE: Teachers attack SNP plans to reduce role of councils in running of schools
Mr Flanagan said the target of teachers' action is both the "SQA bureaucracy and excessive internal unit assessment, with its associated workload burden for teachers and unacceptable assessment pressures on students".
He stressed: "It is not our intention that this action should impact directly on pupils and teachers will continue to teach classes normally and to assess pupils' work.
"We will be issuing guidance to our members advising which SQA-related activities they should withdraw co-operation from and which activities teachers should continue to undertake as normal."
It comes after teachers at the EIS annual general meeting last week spoke of the "desperate need" for the Scottish Government to press the SQA for changes to the assessment practices "in order to lighten the excessive burden on pupils and teachers".
READ MORE: Teachers attack SNP plans to reduce role of councils in running of schools
Mr Flanagan continued: "In August 2014 the then cabinet secretary for education, Michael Russell, in a foreword to a report on the first year of new qualifications, acknowledged the excessive workload demands which had been placed on teachers and outlined a number of actions points, including the removal of duplication between unit assessment and external exams.
"Two cabinet secretaries later, and two full school years on, not one single unit assessment has been removed. That is why EIS members have voted for action.
"This overwhelming ballot result today should send a very clear message to the Scottish Government, to the SQA, and to Education Scotland, that change needs to happen and to happen quickly."
The First Minister said the Scottish Government is "working very hard to ensure that industrial action does not take place in our schools".
Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Ms Sturgeon said: "I don't believe that is in the interests of teachers and I certainly don't believe it is in the interests of young people.
''This is an issue around what teachers consider to be unnecessary workload and the government has been very clear about our determination to take action to reduce teacher workload.''
Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary John Swinney said: "The result of today's ballot is disappointing albeit on what appears to be a low turnout.
"Given that we are addressing the issues of teacher workload, industrial action in our schools would not be in the interests of anyone, least of all pupils and parents.
"In my discussions with teachers, I have heard their concerns around workload. The First Minister and I have set out various steps we are taking to tackle bureaucracy and free up teachers to teach, and we are already actively considering further measures.
"We created a working group, which includes the teacher unions, to focus on what more we need to do to embed the new qualifications and to reduce assessment workload for teachers and young people.
"The report on the group's early discussions was published three weeks ago, and clear and specific actions have already been taken at my request by SQA and Education Scotland.
"I intend to personally reconvene that group to drive further progress in reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
"The Chief Inspector of Education has written to schools with clear guidance on national expectations on qualifications and assessment that will further reduce unnecessary workload on teachers and provide clarity where it is required. Schools have a responsibility to apply this guidance, which will directly assist in reducing workload.
"I have met the Chief Examiner for Scotland to ensure everything possible is being done by the SQA to reduce workloads without damaging the integrity of the national qualifications.
"Going forward, I will meet the Chief Examiner monthly to ensure the progress promised is delivered."
Mr Swinney continued: "At last week's EIS AGM I confirmed new standardised assessments will be marked automatically - adding no further to teacher workloads; and before yesterday's education summit I invited the EIS and Scotland's other teaching unions to share tangible, deliverable ideas to further reduce teacher workload by the end of this week.
"The concerns raised by teachers are being addressed - but we recognise there is more to be done to free up our teachers to teach for the benefit of all in our education system.
"This will be an important part of the delivery plan I will publish before the end of this parliamentary term."
Scottish Green education spokesman Ross Greer said: "Teachers do not take these decisions lightly and our full support should be behind their campaign to bring workloads down to a manageable level.
"The growing pressure teachers have been under has been ignored by the Scottish Government for too long."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here