Education Minister Estelle Morris told the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers at Eastbourne that a new system of appraisal would not be applied nationally from September.

Instead, she told the conference, the coming academic year would be an "introductory year to get the system right".

The new pay structure, backed by £1 billion over two years, will still be introduced from September, 2000, Ms Morris said, and will link pay, at least in part, to pupils' achievement.

But she went out of her way to conciliate the second biggest teaching union, suggesting also that the Government was prepared to be flexible about the details of a new contract which teachers will be asked to sign to access new higher pay scales.

More than 900 delegates, including teachers from across Sussex, gathered at the town's Congress Theatre to hear Ms Morris's speech.

She claimed leaders of the NASUWT were already keen to distance themselves from the militancy of the rival National Union of Teachers, which held its conference in Brighton over the weekend.

She said: "Unlike some, your union has taken a more realistic view on controversial parts of our proposals. But talk of a boycott of a new system where teachers gain higher rewards will not be understood in the wider world."

The NUT is threatening to ballot on a one-day strike over "payment by results".

General secretary Doug McAvoy has already described Ms Morris' widely trailed announcement as a "fudge and a con".

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.