SEVERE teacher shortages will make it impracticable to implement much of the McCrone agreement on reduced contact time in primaries, Nicol Stephen, Deputy Education Minister, was warned. Children could be sent home.

By 2004, primary teachers’ hours in front of class will be cut to 22.5, which is already taxing local authorities in terms of additional staffing.

Some such as Glasgow want more expressive arts teaching to fill in the missing hours and others such as Highland want more modern language specialists.

But one North Lanarkshire head told Mr Stephen there was already no cover for absent staff long before the forthcoming reforms were introduced. Sandra West, a Glasgow head, said children will be sent home if there are no additional teachers to compensate for the cuts in hours. Heads would not cover.

Mr Stephen said there were enough teachers but many were not prepared to move around or work in particular authorities. Primary training courses were heavily over-subscribed. Further efforts were being taken to make workforce planning more accurate.

Gordon Smith, Glasgow, said the one-year postgraduate course was “totally inadequate”. Schools ended up doing the training.

* In his set speech, Mr Stephen defended standards in Scottish schools against critics who allege widespread failings. International comparisons in subjects such as maths and science placed Scotland in the top 10.