OVERWORKED mums and dads should swap parents' evenings for e-mail chats with teachers, according to Government ministers.

The recommendation was made after a survey of 2,000 people's views into how we communicate with public service providers in the computer age.

Ministers say parents should be able to e-mail queries to teachers about their child's progress if they are unable to go to the school because of work commitments.

And they say this system could be used across the public services, with patients sending questions to their GP over minor matters of concern.

It would be interesting to find out what the public service workers of Lewisham and Greenwich think of this latest Labour brainwave.

We hear, week after week, how teachers, doctors and nurses are chronically overworked and how they are often stretched to breaking point through their workload.

Education authorities are already struggling to fill gaping holes in teacher numbers, with foreign teachers being drafted in to paper the cracks. NUT leaders are up in arms over the recruitment situation and the last thing any of these people need is a barrage of e-notes asking how their 'little Tommy' is doing in his French classes.

Everyone is busy these days but if a question about a child's academic progress is important enough to ask, surely we should be prepared to get down to the school and ask it face to face?

December 10, 2001 20:01