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Teaching assistants being laid off in two thirds of schools

MORE than two-thirds of primary and secondary schools are making teaching assistants redundant, a report reveals today.

Sixty nine per cent of secondary schools are cutting numbers of classroom assistants – often the lowest-paid teaching staff – to save money due to government cuts, according to the Sutton Trust.

While 32 per cent of senior leaders in primary schools said they had to cut teaching staff, 72 per cent of them reported having cut their numbers of teaching assistants.

The survey of 1,678 teachers was conducted on behalf of the trust by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).  

The amount of per pupil spending in England’s schools fell by 8 per cent in real terms between 2009-10 and 2017-18, analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found.

Sutton Trust founder and executive chairman Sir Peter Lampl called the squeeze on school budgets “detrimental.”

GMB, the union for school support staff, said that Tory government cuts over almost a decade has “left our children’s future in a perilous state.”

Rehana Azam – national secretary of GMB, the union for school support staff – said teaching assistants are “too often seen as a soft target.”

She added: “These cuts have a terrible impact on our schools.

“Without support staff – the hidden professionals of the education system – teachers are being left with completely unmanageable workloads.

“Schools can’t function if buildings can’t be secured and children can’t be fed.

“Teaching assistants are already working above and beyond their core roles to fill the gaps left with mass numbers of teachers exiting the sector.

“Ministers need to stop denying that school budgets are being cut in the face of all the evidence and make sure we don’t jeopardise the education of an entire generation.”

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “Teaching assistants often provide dedicated services for the pupils who most need extra support and these figures suggest they have been the first to suffer from the government’s cuts. 

“Despite clear backing for the pupil premium from teachers, it has been frozen since the Tories took power in 2015 meaning that yet more support for the most disadvantaged has been taken away.

“Despite the Prime Minister’s promises, austerity clearly isn’t over for our children.

“A Labour government would end the Tory cuts to schools and provide the investment they need to ensure every child gets the start in life they deserve.”

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