Research by the BBC has found that pupils in Wales are regularly taught by staff who are not fully qualified teachers. They say that weekly timetables in more than a quarter of 172 schools who responded include lessons which are taught or supervised by teaching assistants. One Swansea school uses supervisors for 150 hours of classes per week.
Despite this the Welsh Government say that support staff and teachers are not interchangeable: “Raising Standards and Tackling Workload: a National Agreement clearly states that support staff at any level and teachers are not interchangeable and, ultimately, it is the duty of individual head teachers, working with their governing bodies and wider school teams, to determine the best way to deploy staff in their schools.
“Each school will adopt strategies that suit its individual character and circumstances.
“The agreement encourages schools to deploy support staff more flexibly, but accountability for the overall learning outcome of pupils will always rest with qualified teachers.”
Unison, which represents teaching assistants, said the extent to which some of its members were being asked to stand in for teachers was a concern. Jessica Cromie from Unison said some teaching assistants were being used inappropriately.
“We’re concerned that teaching assistants might be put under pressure to take classes that they’re not qualified to do so,” she said.
“Teaching assistants should only do this if they’re employed at a certain level but we are aware that teaching assistants at a lower level are being asked to to this and they’re not being paid accordingly.”
Update: on the show itself itself the Plaid Cymru Education Spokesperson, Nerys Evans said that decisions as to the use of teaching assistants have been devolved to head teachers, however the present situation arises directly out of a national policy agreement signed by the Welsh Government when it was run solely by Labour in the last Assembly and which was opposed by the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru. She gave no indication as to whether Plaid Ministers are presssing for a reversal of this policy.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson pointed out that Welsh schools are under-funded in comparison to England and that if we are to get teachers leading in every classroom then that funding gap needs to be closed.
Related posts:
