Inconsistent council practices often force staff to enter the same pupil data multiple times and teachers struggle with poor broadband connections, the study says.

But local authorities have hit back at the report - carried out by Education Scotland - accusing the agency itself of creating workload problems and of producing a “hurried and inconsistent” report.

The research, which focused on how to tackle workload linked to Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), praises 15 “proactive” councils, but finds that 17 others are doing less well, including three - Falkirk, Moray and Shetland - whose support for teachers is deemed insufficient.

The report came two days before Mr Swinney said that he would scrap unit assessments for National 5 and Higher, after a chorus of complaints from teachers and parents about the increased workload that they caused. Last month, the education secretary also published guidance to help teachers reduce workload driven by CfE.

The tracking and monitoring of pupils’ progress “requires improvement in most local authorities”, says the report, written after inspectors visited every council for up to a day and a half in August. It also finds that teachers often suffer from “the lack of a clear shared understanding” about how to show that a pupil has achieved a CfE level.

In about two-thirds of authorities, teachers blame many problems on inadequate broadband coverage, while the same proportion says the Seemis IT system, used by most councils to manage education information, is “inefficient to operate” and causes “unnecessary work”.

Mr Swinney said the report “clearly shows that many councils in Scotland have more work to do in ensuring that our teachers have the best possible support”.

But John Stodter, general secretary of education directors’ body ADES, said the review had been “hurried and inconsistent”, leading to concerns that the findings were “not wholly based on robust, reliable and consistent evidence”.

George Alexander, vice-chairman of Moray’s children and young people’s services committee, said all staff would be “thoroughly disheartened” by the “unfair reflection” of the council’s efforts to minimise bureaucracy and support schools in the face of a “chronic teacher shortage”.