THE Government will change the law to allow unqualified staff, including classroom assistants, to take lessons as part of its strategy to cut teachers’ workload.
The measure, which will be part of the education Bill due to be published next week, comes as new research casts doubt on the effectiveness of classroom assistants. It is the most controversial proposal in the Government’s response to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report on teachers’ workload.
Unions have accused Education Secretary Estelle Morris of trying to solve the recruitment crisis “on the cheap” and say that the move will be unpopular with parents.
But, as Ms Morris said at the Social Market Foundation on Monday, public service improvement is the key theme of Labour’s second term. It will not look good if after eight years in office its biggest achievement in education is to replace qualified teachers with “pig-ignorant peasants” to quote Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.
Ms Morris has turned to classroom assistants in an attempt to break out of a difficult situation which threatens to undermine Labour’s education reforms.
By 2006, if the demand for teachers continues at its present rate of increase, 40,000 teaching posts could be unfilled. But relying on classroom assistants is unlikely to prove a quick fix.
The National Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations has already warned that it will not be enough to employ additional classroom assistants and other para-professionals to plug the gap.
Researchers at the Open University have found no evidence that the assistants, whose qualifications range from none to a PhD, have actually improved standards.
The policy of increasing the number of assistants, described by Michael Barber, former head of the Department for Education and Skills’ Standards and Effectiveness Unit, as “an incipient quiet revolution”, has developed largely unregulated, the study says.
Their number shot up by 48 per cent from 1995 to 2000 while those for primary teachers increased by just 1 per cent. Alan Marr, research fellow on the study, said provision was uneven and did not correlate with school performance, size or social deprivation. “Hence our conclusion that the evidence for their efficacy is flimsy and at best anecdotal.”
Classroom assistants are in the main, according to the study, white women, aged between 31 and 50. Most work part-time, providing teachers with between six and 15 hours support a week.
They were heavily involved in assessing children and recording their progress and nine out of 10 were taking children on their own and responsible for activities ranging from phonics teaching and storytelling to mental maths and information and communications technology demonstrations.
Four out of 10 were interested in becoming a teacher, but only one in five applied. They were put off by the workload and level of responsibility. Roger Hancock, co-director of the OU study, said: “A lot of assistants, when they took on the work, didn’t quite see it as a proper job. Many were grateful to the head for giving them the work. Originally they thought of it as a way of structuring their lives around their children and being paid for it. Suddenly these women realised they were doing serious work.”
DRAFT FINDINGS OF PWC REPORT
Teachers work more intensive weeks than comparable professionals but do similar hours over a year.
* Heads could do more to help staff manage workloads and should receive training to enable them to do so.
* Extra money for schools is not being used effectively to raise the morale of teachers or to improve teacher retention.
* Administration, exam invigilation and pastoral support should be transferred to non-teaching staff.
* Support for guaranteed non-contact time for teachers but no amount specified.
* Effectiveness of schools’ management of workload to be inspected by Ofsted (Estyn in Wales) * Calls for a 35-hour-week rejected.
THE FACTS: CLASSROOM ASSISTANTS
* 95,815 classroom assistants in England and Wales.
* Qualifications range from none to a PhD * Pay ranges from under pound;4 to pound;9 an hour.
* Also known as teaching assistants, learning support assistants and integration assistants.
