The Government is pushing ahead with its plans to develop an enhanced role for classroom assistants. After ministers insisting for months that the rise in numbers of teaching assistants (TAs) was unrelated to teacher shortages and denying that they were a cheap option to paper over recruitment difficulties, recent statements have suggested that the Government does now view TA employment as going some way to alleviating the problem.
But many teachers view the plans to enhance the TAs' role as an attack on their professional status. Professor Diane Montgomery of Middlesex University says it will result in poor teaching and a return to 19th century education. The Open University has carried out a two-year study into primary school classroom support staff and has also expressed concerns about the Government's proposals.
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