SECONDARY school teachers are to take industrial action over “excessive workload” despite moves by ministers to alleviate the problem.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) has backed a work to rule 10 days after the Scottish Government announced plans to scrap time-consuming internal assessments.

Last month, Education Secretary John Swinney said secondary teachers would no longer be expected to complete so-called unit assessments as part of National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.

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Shortly afterwards the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) suspended its programme of industrial action.

However, the SSTA, which has 9,000 members, said the changes would not begin to come into effect until next year, leaving teachers still struggling. The union also warned concerns over National 4 exams had not been addressed.

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the SSTA, said: “Unfortunately, the proposed changes for National 5 do not take place until 2017/18 and, with the lack of progress on National 4, the union had no option but to move to action to protect another cohort of young people and its members from excessive workload.

“The ballot has shown the strength of feeling and determination of secondary school teachers to address the workload demands that distract teachers from focusing on teaching.

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“The SSTA wishes to acknowledge and welcome Mr Swinney’s determination to declutter the work of teachers and allow them to focus on teaching, but workload is unlikely to be significantly reduced in the current session.”

Mr Swinney said there was “no justification whatsoever” for industrial action given the steps that had been taken and urged the union to reconsider.

He said: “This action would not be in the interests of anyone, least of all young people and parents and I urge SSTA members not to participate.

“Over the past few months I have listened carefully to what teachers, parents, young people and others have had to say on workload and have responded positively with a range of actions.

“As part of this, I have now announced the removal of mandatory unit assessments. This will significantly reduce the workload for teachers, giving them more time to focus on teaching our young people.”

Mr Swinney pledged to make tackling teacher workload his number one priority after his appointment as Education Secretary.

The unit assessments were introduced to lessen the importance of external exams, to set short-term goals for pupils and build a series of benchmarked achievements into courses because of concerns some pupils, such as those from more deprived backgrounds, were being disadvantaged.

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However, teachers argue the units are unnecessary because pupils are still required to pass the coursework and final exam. They also argue the resulting workload has led to a crisis in schools with staff swamped with paperwork.