Teachers have little to fear from classroom assistants

Teachers often complain, individually and as a profession, that their job is too stressful. They are right about that, and the bureaucratic excesses and requirements of governments of both parties have certainly contributed to the pressures of what has always been a challenging job.

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Teachers often complain, individually and as a profession, that their job is too stressful. They are right about that, and the bureaucratic excesses and requirements of governments of both parties have certainly contributed to the pressures of what has always been a challenging job.

All the more puzzling, then, that they seem to be so agitated about a proposal that might relieve some of the workload. And yet a report for the National Association of Schoolmasters-Union of Women Teachers says that making more use of teaching or classroom assistants would be a "disastrous move". This seems unduly alarmist. True, teachers should be keen to prevent any deprofessionalisation of an already demoralised workforce. It would be unfortunate if some of the more zealous elements in the Department for Education and Skills were allowed to use the valuable contribution that teaching assistants could make to the education of our children simply to keep teachers' pay down.

None of that, however, justifies the teachers' hostility to this move. No doubt few teachers would agree with his words, but it is worth recalling that it is not long ago that Nigel de Gruchy, the outgoing head of the NAS-UWT, used the term "pig-ignorant peasants" in relation to classroom assistants. (Mr de Gruchy denied he was talking about classroom assistants.) The language presently used by the union is, thankfully, more temperate, but there is still more than a whiff of hostility in the air.

Teachers seem to be stuck on the concept of classroom assistants being "in sole charge" of a classroom. But surely being in sole charge of a classroom of pupils does not necessarily mean that a classroom assistant is attempting to do the job of a fully qualified teacher. There may be circumstances in which it is a straightforward matter of supervising work already organised by a teacher for a short period, or of taking children on an educational visit. Classroom assistants should have the qualifications and the ability to undertake those tasks, and there is no reason why they should not be subjected to the same kind of performance review that teachers are. But, with those important caveats, teachers have little to fear and much to gain from a much more flexible approach to their working practices.

The teaching profession has many more potent threats to counter than an enhanced role for classroom assistants.