Poor teachers. At last, a Government scheme comes along designed to reduce their workload instead of adding to it, and what happens?

They end up with even bigger classes.

Cutting class sizes was a key election pledge of the Labour Government in 1997.

Yet latest figures show that 626 children in the county are competing against at least 36 classmates for their teacher's attention on a daily basis.

This is the worst figure in the South East region.

Giving teachers 10 per cent of their time outside the classroom for marking and preparation through the workforce remodelling agreement was a great idea.

But some teachers are now paying for their time out when they return to class.

Like many of the Government's great ideas, it lacked that all important ingredient hard cash.

And who will get publicly criticised for chaos in the classrooms when the Government's education watchdog Ofsted comes knocking? Yes, the poor teachers.