Sick leave among full-time teachers

10 days off on average 44% of absences were for more than 20 days 2,249,100 days lost

The official figures coincide with others from the Confederation of British Industry showing that workers across the UK take on average 7.8 days sick leave.

Teachers therefore take significantly more time off - given that they are required to be at work for only 195 days a year, or 39 weeks.

But teachers' unions say this is an indication of the stress their members are under.

The Department for Education says an estimated 265,000 full-time or part-time teachers in England had some sick leave in 1999, which is about 55% of the total workforce.

Among full-time teachers, 60% took sick leave at some point.

Regional differences

Part-time teachers were far less likely to be ill (35% of them took time off). Those who were took eight days on average.

There are regional variations: from 65% of full-time teachers in the South West who took sickness absence to 56% in the North West and in the East of England.

The CBI's figures show a fall in the number of days workers were ill, from 8.5 on average the previous year.

This is the first time figures have been produced for sickness among teachers. Of the 150 local education authorities, 24 provided incomplete figures or none at all, and the department has estimated what they would have been.

The government has set itself a target of cutting levels of absence by 20% at the end of 2001 and 30% by the end of 2003 as part of a Cabinet Office initiative launched last year.

Call for better management

The Department for Education believes quicker progress can be achieved in schools and is telling them to make the 30% cut by 2002.

The School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, said: "The health of the nation's teachers has a direct effect on the quality of education our children receive.

"Poor health is bad news for the teachers who go sick, bad news for their colleagues who have to spend time making arrangements for covering classes, and bad for children's education.

"Everyone is sick from time to time, and sometimes teachers come into work when they are ill.

"But the variation in absence rates can be influenced by the quality of management practice.

"It is essential that education authorities work in partnership with schools to tackle the problem of teacher absence."

But the head of the teachers' employers organisation, Graham Lane, questioned the government's target.

"Our figures for teacher absence rates overall show that they are better than the rest of local government staff which indicates that it is not a problem nationwide among all schools," he said.

"If there are some teachers who are swinging the lead then action should be taken but our view is that the majority of teachers are doing the opposite. They are struggling in when they quite ill."

'Not fiddling'

There have been repeated warnings from teachers' unions about the stress caused by increased workloads, a culture of testing and inspections, and unruly behaviour by pupils.

Commenting on the figures, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Nigel de Gruchy, said: "The total of two and a half million working days lost through teacher sickness absence is staggering.

"This scandalously high figure cannot be put down to teachers fiddling the system.

"Before pressurising employers to crack down on absence, the government should consider the implications for the public purse.

"Compensation for the victims of stress is rising rapidly. Wielding the big stick will make the situation worse.

"The government should be tough on the causes of stress and not tough on the victims."

This week, a teacher won �300,000 in compensation after being forced to take early retirement through stress.

His union, the National Union of Teachers, said it was short-sighted of the government to think that better management in schools would cut the sickness figures.

"The constantly increasing workload and stress under which teachers work, and their vulnerability to the ailments brought into school by pupils, inevitably impact on the amount of time they have off sick," a spokeswoman said.

In some schools teachers are also told to take time off if they have an illness which might be passed on to their pupils, even though they might be willing to work.