More than a third of support staff cover for absent teachers, even for long periods. But while they are happy to embrace a role that will take them a long way from the old days of cleaning paint pots, they want better pay and conditions in return.

The survey, by Trevor Kerry of Lincoln University, found assistants in the East Midlands back the Government’s idea of recruiting an army of assistants to take over more tasks from teachers, including covering for absence.

But Professor Kerry said there was widespread hostility to being “teachers on the cheap”. Classroom assistants earn on average pound;5 to pound;6 per hour, with no sick or holiday pay, but this varies widely between education authorities and even schools. In many cases, they are either not offered training or are expected to take it in their own time.

Many want a proper pay scale. One said: “How can it be right that if support staff move schools, or even start a new contract at the same school, they fall to the bottom of the salary scale? Is there any other job where experience counts for nothing?”

A number of support staff said they were better able to cover for absence than supply staff. “I have been put in the position of taking control of a class of 33 children and setting the work based on the (absent) teacher’s work plans as the supply staff don’t know what to do or how to deal with children especially with special needs,” said one.

But others pointed out that untrained assistants could not be expected to cover for subject specialists in secondary schools.

Only a quarter of the staff surveyed did not provide cover for absence and just a fifth thought it would be wrong to do so.

The survey covered 50 support staff: half were in primary schoools and nearly all were women.

Local-authority employers are working on a new, national career structure for assistants that could see the pay of senior staff rise as high as pound;25,000 a year.