The study by the London Metropolitan University, commissioned by the DCSF, found that 55 per cent of primary schools were regularly using support staff to cover short absences, with one in ten saying they use teaching assistants to cover absences of more than three days. In secondary and special schools the figure rose to 40 per cent.
In some primary schools support staff said they had covered lessons for more than two weeks.
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said, 'It is a dereliction of duty to put people who are not qualified teachers in front of children and expect that everything will be all right.'
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