BBC Scotland Correspondent Andrew Cassell: Scottish teachers set for a head-on confrontation

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland have voted to boycott the introduction of changes to the Higher level qualification, claiming that the proposed reforms are not yet ready for the classroom.

The institute's General Secretary, Ronnie Smith, said before meeting the Scottish Education Minister, Helen Liddell, that he would be explaining the boycott decision.

"We are clear that a boycott is not an end in itself, " he said, "it is a means to an end.

"We want to use every avenue open to us to get the conditions right."

The reforms, known as Higher Still, aim to combine vocational courses with the current academic Higher subjects in a new modular system.

But teachers say that the greater emphasis on coursework and assessment within schools will mean an unacceptable increase in their workloads.

Helen Liddell: Exasperated

Mrs Liddell says she has done everything teachers have asked her to ease the introduction of changes.

That includes, most recently, setting up a liaison forum - the first meeting of which took place on Monday but was itself boycotted by the Institute's representatives.

But she said before the meeting that she was "prepared to listen".

'Squabbling'

BBC Scotland's education correspondent says that government sources are disturbed by suggestions that internal squabbling in the union might disadvantage thousands of Scottish schoolchildren, and questioned whether some union activists were looking for an excuse to take industrial action.

But union leaders angrily reject claims of a split or that the dispute has been hijacked by a minority. They point to the fact that 86% of teachers voted in favour of a boycott - confirmed by nearly 65% of the union's executive.

The educational institute, which represents 80% of Scottish teachers, has issued a formal notice to local authorities and colleges that industrial action will begin next Tuesday.

On the same day a ballot by the second biggest union, the SSTA, is expected to back a similar boycott.