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Teach Our Classroom Assistants

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 15:01 CST

By Tony Collins

A NATIONAL training programme should be introduced for school teaching assistants to answer claims that they are being used as "cheap labour".

The call has been made by a leading city academic following a major research project into the issue.

The study, carried out by Prof Stan Tucker of Newman College of Higher Education, Bartley Green, in conjunction with the University of Leicester, follows a large increase in the number of teaching assistants within schools.

The proportion of classroom assistants who do not have Qualified Teacher Status has jumped by 140 per cent, from 61,260 in 1997 to 148,500 last year. The upsurge follows the government's workforce reforms which, since September, have given teachers the right to spend half a day out of the classroom to mark pupils' work and prepare lessons.

But it has led to claims from the National Union of Teachers that some schools are using classroom assistants to child mind rather than employing a teacher. Prof Tucker, whose research was funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, said there is a belief that teaching assistants play a significant role in lightening teachers' workloads.

But he warned: "Where difficulties arise is where they are given roles teaching in classrooms, because they are not teachers.

"There is confusion as to how these teaching assistants are supposed to be used, sometimes in a pastoral role with children with special needs, but other times in an educational role.

"Against this is the teaching unions' claims of teaching assistants as being cheap labour, but it's the Government that is pushing their use."

Prof Tucker's research project has looked at the role of classroom assistants in primary and secondary schools but, more importantly, at the issue of training.

The final two parts of the study, which he describes as the most comprehensive review of teaching assistants undertaken in the UK, have yet to be published.

But he said the most important element of the project was to build training around what the teaching assistants need.

"Different schools are using teaching assistants differently. We are saying there should be training which meets the needs of the job so there is standardising of the training," he said.

"We need to define what their role is and then match the training to that. That is what we are saying."

The project focused on the range of jobs that teaching assistants undertake and how they, children, parents, their colleagues and managers see their role.

Across the board the results overwhelmingly indicated that teaching assistants are viewed as playing a vital role within our classrooms. Teachers and parents welcomed the flexibility of an additional adult's presence within the classroom and pupils saw support staff members as someone for them to turn to and someone who helped the teacher.

Prof Tucker concluded: "This research is really important when the Government intends to increase the role and status of teaching assistants in the classroom.

"Teaching assistants perform important educational, social care and health functions, but often the importance of the work is not recognised.

"Those running schools do not always share a common view on how teaching assistants should be used in the classroom. This can lead to confusion and frustration.

"This research highlights the need for greater clarity in terms of the creation of an appropriate job description, better management and more focused deployment."

Source: Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK)

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