ON Wednesday the report I commissioned from the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) into teacher workload was published. I asked the review body to produce this important report because of my concern that increasing demands on teachers were not allowing them to do what they do best - teach.

I welcome the way in which the report has been produced, with careful analysis of all the evidence and opinions from the teaching profession and beyond. Its conclusions and the recommendations rightly demand equally thoughtful consideration and discussion.

The report proposes changes that would amount to a major package of reform with substantial implications for both Government and the profession.

We will now have a full public consultation, running until July 3.

In addition, I shall be looking to the school workforce remodelling working party that I set up in December last year to consider the report carefully and give me its views. I want to hear every side of the debate before we move forward and consult further on practical measures.

It is important to be clear why we decided to focus on workload. Both as Secretary of State and a former teacher, I know that the people who work in our schools are a priceless asset on which so much of our nation’s future depends - not just in raw economic terms, but for our social fabric too.

As our expectation of teachers rises, and as a good education determines more and more what the future holds for our nation’s children, the pressure on teachers increases. But at the same time we must look hard at how we can help teachers meet the challenges society increasingly places upon them. That is why I set up the school workforce remodelling working party, which includes representatives of the teaching profession and other parts of the school workforce. And that is why I commissioned the report from the STRB, to provide us with a platform for discussion.

But I want also to make clear that any reform that we take forward from this report must make the link between teacher workload and raising standards for pupils.

It is true that a well motivated, better prepared teaching profession is crucial to raising standards even further than we have done so far. But I do not want people to believe that this process is just about workload. The bottom line will always be standards. The two are intertwined and it is on this basis that I will look at each recommendation in the report.

It cannot be right to ignore what the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report tells us, that up to 20 percent of teacher duties could be done by someone else. This is why I see a greater range of trained adults in the classroom as so important. That does not mean undermining the status of teachers. Quite the reverse. Teachers should have the support staff they need so they can concentrate on doing the job of teaching. With an extra 26,000 extra support staff last year, it is vital we move this agenda forward.

In the 10 years since I taught in the classroom, I know that the pace of change has increased each year. I know that the pressure is greater and that we as a nation rightly expect more. We cannot change that; we live in a world of rapid technological innovation and dramatic social and economic change. Not to react to those changes would be to send pupils out into the world ill-prepared.

Yet, for all the innovation and changes that have affected our schools over past decades, too little attention has been paid to how this has changed teachers’ roles and what extra support is needed to fulfil those roles. Although many of the changes have brought about higher standards in our schools, too many teachers feel themselves stretched beyond what they can reasonably be expected to manage.

The report published this week is important but it is only the beginning. We have many key discussions ahead of us. But by the end of the process I hope we will have achieved what I know we all want - teachers with more time to teach and with the support they need to do the important tasks we ask of them.