Education officials say teachers compare well with most workers

Latest official provisional figures show that an estimated 298,000 full-time or part-time teachers took sickness absence in 2003.

That was up from 293,400 in 2002 but the same percentage of the workforce - about 57% - on account of the greater recruitment into the profession.

On average those who went sick took 9.6 days off, up from 9.3 last year but less than the 2001 peak of 10 days.

Regional variations

Teachers in the South East outside London were off the least, with 49% overall taking sickness leave, for 8.5 days on average.

Those in the West Midlands were most likely to be off - 61% - closely followed by London and by the Yorkshire and the Humber region, at 60%.

But those in the North East were off for the longest - an average of 11.1 days - while those in London were off for the least amount of time - eight days on average.

And there were pronounced regional differences in the levels of those taking longer-term leave, of more than four weeks.

More than half the sickness in the North East - 52% - was in this category, while in London only 35% was.

'Bureaucracy'

The Liberal Democrats said teachers took 350,200 more days off sick last year than in 1999.

The party's education spokesman, Phil Willis, said: "Our children need teachers that are fit and well and in the classroom.

"The government must realise that their policy of piling more and more bureaucracy on teachers has to stop.

"Unless they do so, it is our children who will continue to lose out."

A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said the sickness absence figures for 2003 were virtually unchanged from the previous year, "despite record increases of 4,000 teachers over the same period".

"CBI research shows that national sickness absence averages for all employees stands at 7.2 days meaning that teachers, with an average sickness absence of 5.4 days, are well below the national average and public sector."

These figures relate to the number of days taken off for all those employed, as opposed to the average for those who took sickness leave.