Valuable teaching time is ebbing away in a sea of paperwork, the incoming president of the Ulster Teachers' Union warned. Mr Alistair Orr told the annual conference in Newcastle, Co Down, he did not need a filing cabinet when he became principal of a two-teacher school 20 years ago.
Now principals had several cabinets as well as shelves heaving with box files. "Sadly this bureaucratic overload does nothing to improve the quality of teaching or raise teaching standards".
Mr Orr was proposing a resolution, which was carried unanimously, welcoming the British report on reducing the bureaucratic burden on teachers and calling on the Department of Education for Northern Ireland to implement its recommendations.
Delegates carried by a large majority a motion deploring the suggestion that teachers should be responsible for organising the Labour government's proposed new "breakfast and homework clubs".
It was proposed by Ms Gillian Garrett, Belfast branch, who claimed teachers were overwhelmed with demands and could not find time for such duties.
"If the [British] government want to provide homework and breakfast centres, then let them fund the initiative centrally," she said.
The conference also rejected British government proposals to integrate children with special educational needs into the mainstream education system. The conference continues today.