Help Safeguard Our Teaching Assistants
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Help Safeguard Our Teaching Assistants
If you know any children of school age or are the least bit concerned about the future of our education system and the children it teaches – who will afterall be the adults running society in your old age – please read this short post.
Why? Because Teaching Assistants Jobs Are At Risk
Teaching Assistants jobs are at risk as the next round of educational cut backs are being formulated and Mr Gove and the Department for Education are looking for quick ways to save money.
A Bit of Background on Teaching Assistants
In case you don’t know, teaching assistants in the UK are paid helpers who work with individual children or small groups in the classroom, alongside the teacher. They were brought in by the last Labour government (and that’s probably half the beef with the current Tory/Lib-Dem lot) in an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure teachers face in the classroom. Since 2000, the number of teaching assistants has risen from 79,000 to around 232,000.
It’s estimated that cutting them out could save in the region of £4billion a year.
Yes, that’s a lot of money, but shouldn’t we be more concerned with other effects likely to arise?
Class sizes have been growing for years now. Small classes are, for the most part, a forgotten luxury in the public system and the current government has now relaxed the law made in 1998 which made it illegal for classes to have more than 30 pupils in them. The number of 4 to 7 year olds taught in classes of over 30 has more than doubled in the last 5 years according to a report published by the Office of National Statistics last month.
If teaching assistants are lost, teachers will be left to cope with these numbers alone.
The number of children recognised as having special needs has also grown beyond all recognition with as many as almost 20% of children in the UK being diagnosed in some way.
Now, whilst it may be argued that for some of them, their issues are more to do with their socio-economic background, their families or behavioural issues than an inherent learning problem per se, the fact remains that these children need extra support – both for their own sake and for the sake of their classmates.
How can one teacher be expected to teach 30+ pupils, cater to the range of educational levels and individual needs in that class and deal with children who might be disruptive and need extra, even one to one support?
Add to that what may be the biggest problem of all – the apparent change in society’s values, where teachers powers of discipline are next to zero – and what do you expect the result on the education of our children to be?
My Own Perspective On Teaching Assistants
I’ve been lucky enough to volunteer in a school this year, helping children who are not the greatest spellers and I’ve seen first hand what a great job the teaching assistants do. They are able to offer the support that the teachers, with the best will in the world, don’t have the time to do. I’ve witnessed endless patience, kindness and encouragement and seen myself what a difference this can make to those who struggle to learn, concentrate or just fit in.
I for one think getting rid of teaching assistants can only be a dis-service to our teachers and more importantly to me as a mum, to our children.