Education Secretary John Swinney has been accused of having "completely lost the confidence of the teaching profession".
Mr Swinney was questioned on teacher workload after a survey by the EIS teaching union found 87% of respondents said their workload increased during the 2016-17 school year and 19% would not recommend the profession.
The survey was released days after the union signalled it could order strikes unless action is taken to increase pay.
Labour's Iain Gray said: "At its AGM last week the EIS rejected the government's Teach First proposal, threatened to withdraw co-operation with the government's new tests and school league tables and sanctioned a ballot on industrial action over pay and workload.
"This week, the EIS survey showed that over 86% of teachers are telling us their workload has increased in the last year, not decreased as the Cabinet Secretary has claimed.
"Does the Cabinet Secretary understand that he has completely lost the confidence of the teaching profession?"
Labour's Johann Lamont said there were "significant, systemic problems in education" which were having a "massive impact" on both teachers and pupils.
She said the EIS survey showed "alarming and deteriorating" situation for teachers, hitting recruitment and retention.
Conservative Jamie Greene said: "Does (Mr Swinney) not agree that actually it's the poor delivery of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) that is increasing teacher workloads?"
Mr Swinney said Mr Gray had brought a "litany of misery" to the Scottish Parliament chamber before saying the government had no commitment to the Teach First scheme, although it could bid for tenders for new routes into teaching as long as it had an academic partner.
He said the government has acknowledged the strain public-sector workers are under from pay constraint and is continuing negotiations, adding it is not producing school league tables.
He said the government had simplified CfE in the past year and taken a number of steps to reduce teachers workload, including reducing bureaucracy in schools and evidence from inspectors showed "workload is reducing as a consequence".
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