Teachers' unions are divided over the workload agreement

The Education Secretary Charles Clarke attacked the "militant opportunism" of teachers' unions opposed to the government's plans to modernise the profession.

Speaking at a conference in London promoting the "national agreement" over reducing teachers' workload, Mr Clarke said that he would not be blocked by "old-style vested interests".

The National Union of Teachers, has refused to join a deal, already signed by the government and several other teachers' unions, which will give teachers protected time for marking and planning lessons.

There will be more classroom assistants in schools, who will take on administrative tasks and in some cases, they will take responsibility for classes.

This national agreement was hailed by the education secretary as "the sort of trade unionism I want to do business with. Grown-up, forward-looking progressive trade unionism. Trade unionism that is focused on the big issues and how we solve them. Trade unionism that delivers results."

But he attacked the teachers who were against what he described as the "radical reform of the school workforce".

'Principle'

"I have no time at all for the sort of militant opportunism that some people still cling to. There are no minority vetoes and old style vested interests will not stop us from delivering change for the better. I think that the old time religion has had its day," said Mr Clarke.

The National Union of Teachers rejected the attack and repeated their opposition to allowing classroom assistants to take charge of classes.

"The NUT will not sign the agreement because it allows non-qualified people to take whole classes without the presence of a qualified teacher. That is a matter of principle," said John Bangs, the union's head of education.

But the education secretary acknowledged that schools were worried that the drive to reduce teachers' workload would be undermined by funding problems .

"The biggest difficulty we have had, and I admit it quite candidly, is the uncertainty that arose as a result of the difficulties with school funding," said the education secretary.

"I don't think those doubts are justified but I do think they were entirely understandable and I understand why people came to have concerns about that."

And he promised an above-inflation funding increase for next year, with budget decisions to be given to schools this autumn, rather than early spring.