A teacher has sparked a massive debate after she said it wasn’t her job to deal with a six-year-old who isn’t potty trained. In an article for the Daily Mail the 33-year-old teacher said that the mum had forgotten to leave her son’s spare clothes and nappies.

According to the teacher after promising to come back with them in an hour - 90 minutes later there was still no sign. She explained: ”When I called to ask where they were (by this time, the poor boy had whispered to me that he’d wet himself), her response was depressingly, yet predictably, negative: ‘I don’t have time! He’s at school so it’s your problem now.’

“But she’s wrong. Nappy-changing very definitely isn’t in my teaching job description. Particularly because the child in question wasn’t a toddler, but a six-year-old.

“You may be stunned to hear that a mother would send her son to school without first teaching him how to use the loo. But, sadly, this blasé attitude isn’t a parental one-off. “

She described the ‘slapdash’ approach to the most basic parts of parenting some people have in her ‘well-to-do middle-class town in the south of England’. She said the school has a bank of spare clothes and underwear, along with nappies, wipes and lotions, on the fully equipped changing station because lots of children arrive at school still not toilet trained.

And it is dreadful for the child too. The teacher added: “This six-year-old was particularly socially aware. He was incredibly embarrassed that I had to sort him out and put on a fresh nappy.

“Teachers like me feel furious that parents are, quite literally, leaving us to clean up their mess. I’m only 33, yet I’ve changed hundreds of nappies in the schools I’ve worked in. (The irony that I’m not a mother myself but have likely had more nappy experience than some of the parents I encounter doesn’t escape me.)

“Parenting experts suggest that children are mature enough to learn between the ages of two and three. Yet a recent report outlined that 90 per cent of reception teachers, like me, reported having children in their class who aren’t toilet-trained.”

She said that middle-class parents are also the ones most likely to be chronically late in dropping off their children, which stresses their offspring. The teacher added that these parents dash from one day to the next, lurching from one life ‘crisis’ to another.

She said: “Face-to-face chats with such parents are rare, too, because they have ‘no time’. When I do manage to pin down such a parent, my message is clear. I remind them of the life skills their children need to have — to use a knife and fork; to put on and remove their shoes; to zip up their coat; and, of course, to be toilet-trained.

“I try to impress upon them that the average child needs their mum and dad firmly and consistently helping them navigate the world outside their home. I’ll doggedly remind them that toilet-training requires their full attention, offering tips such as praising their children at home for going to the lavatory, or encouraging them to use a sticker reward system.

“How can you be too busy to teach your child such a basic skill — one that, if ignored, will hinder their physical and emotional development?”

Comments from readers included: “Toilet training is definitely a parental responsibility NOT a schoolteacher’s one. And any child still in nappies at school age should be refused admission.” Another added: “This would all be solved if schools saw potty training as a developmental milestone - unless the child has life changing medical issues, no training means not ready for school so don’t bring them. Parents today seem to be able to muster the energy to pack for a holiday but can’t be ars ed to stay home for a while and do the basics.”

A third said: “I think parents should be called in to clean their own children up. We have a girl in my class who often has accidents (number two) and it’s really unpleasant to have to clean her.. its beyond the money I earn.”