Nicky Morgan has committed to publishing an “action plan” in January to detail how the government intends to lighten teachers’ workloads, despite having more than 40,000 submissions to wade through.

The education secretary used a live phone-in on Monday to pledge that her department would produce a detailed response to teachers’ workload woes within just six weeks.

More than 43,000 teachers responded to the Department for Education’s Workload Challenge, which was launched in October with the aim of understanding why England’s teachers have some of the longest working weeks in the developed world.

The number of responses to the survey - a record for a DfE consultation - means that officials will have the monumental task of sifting through each response in order to form an action plan by next month.

Speaking on Monday, Ms Morgan said she did not want to pre-empt the consultation before every response had been looked at, but said a plan was forthcoming.

“We’re looking at the 43,000 responses and we have a panel of people from both inside and outside the department who are going to look at what we propose,” she said.

“We are planning to publish an action plan in the new year - and by new year, I mean January. We will give an update to everybody as to where the conclusions are leading. ”

To listen to the full phone-in, watch the video below. 

[View:https://www.youtube.com/v/7IqohbpFIDk?fs=1?fs=1?fs=1?fs=1&rel=0]

Related stories: 

Teacher workload: thousands respond to government call for evidence - 26 October 2014

Nicky Morgan: ‘I want to build a new deal for teacher workload - and I need your help’ - 21 October 2014

Nick Clegg calls on teachers to explain their workload worries  - 22 October 2014

Nicky Morgan: We must lift the burden on our ‘hero’  - 30 September 2014