The survey will seek views on class sizes and exams

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council said it had received complaints that there were fewer meetings with parents.

It also said it had heard warnings that headteachers were reluctant to run small classes such as Advanced Highers.

But the EIS union and the Scottish Executive insisted the McCrone deal on teachers' conditions was working well.

The settlement, reached in 2001, delivered a salary rise to teachers and capped their working week at 35 hours.

Its implementation will see staff in secondaries spending about an hour a week less actually teaching classes.

Teachers in primaries will be in front of a class for two and a half hours less per week.

Parents' experience

The full impact of the new terms and conditions will be felt from August.

Judith Gillespie, of the SPTC, said the survey was aimed at finding out how widespread any problems may be.

She told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I certainly know that Audit Scotland is doing a review of the McCrone deal and how it has worked from the teachers' side.

"We thought that it was actually quite useful to look and see how well it was working from the parents' side.

"When you hear anecdotal evidence it's very important to know whether this is widespread or whether this happens to have been a chance thing in one or two schools."

We are confident that there are enough resources to deliver the reduction in class contact time Executive spokesman

President of the EIS union Jack Barnett said he believed that if there were problems with the agreement they would have been spotted.

He added: "Local authorities and Her Majesty's Inspectorate, when they're inspecting schools, are certainly very interested in the level of contact between parents and teachers.

"If there had been significant problems I'm sure they would have picked up on these."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said that the McCrone settlement had made teaching an "attractive" career.

"We are confident that there are enough resources to deliver the reduction in class contact time, " he said.

The spokesman added that extra money had been invested in education and an increasing number of teachers were being trained.

In February, Highland Council warned that the pay deal meant that schools may have to prune their existing curriculum, cutting back on Advanced Higher options.