Welsh Education Minister Jane Davidson said Monmouthshire Education Authority had withheld important information and the minister said she was unhappy about "unacceptable" delays in the case.

Jane Davidson: Highly critical

In a report published on Monday, Ms Davidson urged education authorities across Wales to scrap the system of suspending teachers automatically when a complaint is made.

The minister said "clear guidance" was required for all bodies involved in the delivery of education policy.

Mrs Evans, 57, was invited to attend the report's publication at the National Assembly building in Cardiff by Ms Davidson, who ordered the investigation into the handling of Mrs Evans's case.

A spokeswoman for Monmouthshire County Council said the reported vindicated the authority's original action to suspend Mrs Evans.

The headteacher was suspended by education chiefs for 18 months in September 1999 from her post at St Mary's Junior School, Caldicot.

She was cleared on appeal of slapping a 10-year-old pupil and of further allegations of pupil mistreatment by members of her own staff.

Most teachers can expect one or two allegations in the course of their career

Gethin Lewis, NUT Cymru

The authority said there were other allegations against her.

The National Union of Teachers Cymru (Wales), representing Mrs Evans, is confident the report will be her final vindication.

Ms Davidson said Monmouthshire LEA acted unreasonably in withholding the allegations against Mrs Evans from the school's governing body, and that this contributed to the delay.

The minister added the LEA was also unreasonable in failing to give Mrs Evans access to documents until very late in the day, she said.

Mrs Evans was not given details of the full allegations until a few weeks before the commencement of the disciplinary hearing.

NUT Cymru general secretary Gethin Lewis supported Mrs Evans

Ms Davidson accused both the LEA and the governing body of shortcomings.

Mrs Evans is happy to be back in school but remains mystified why her own staff had made allegations against her.

"I want to get down to the nitty-gritty of why this happened," she told BBC Radio Wales.

Regional changes

The NUT Cymru criticised the length of Mrs Evans' ordeal and said it was concerned that it had to go to the High Court to learn the nature of further allegations made against the headteacher.

It also complained that the local education authority was judge, jury and prosecutor in her case.

On March 9 this year, Mrs Justice Bracewell ruled in the union's favour and ordered governors to draw up a new set of rules and procedures ahead of the disciplinary hearing.

Mrs Evans has now returned to St Mary's School

The three-day hearing was held and Mrs Evans was finally cleared of all the allegations.

The governors decided after a 19-and-a-half hour meeting that she should be allowed to return to school.

Following Mrs Evans' case, then Education Secretary David Blunkett announced he wanted to cut the amount of time it takes to deal with allegations from an average of nine months to three months.

The Westminster government is already implementing a number of changes to the system in England, including new regional co-ordinators to oversee complaints against teachers and heads.

They will advise headteachers and governors and iron out bottlenecks in the investigations carried out by police, social workers and council officials.

The system will not be adopted in Wales, where the Assembly is to use existing agencies to perform a similar role.