More than nine out of 10 parents believe students should not be taught be unqualified teachers, a new survey has revealed.

Out of more than 1,000 parents surveyed by the NASUWT union, 95 per cent said it was important that children are taught by “professionally qualified” members of staff.

In 2012, the Department for Education announced that academies were free to appoint teachers without Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). This would, the DfE said at the time, allow then to employ professionals “who may be extremely well-qualified and are excellent teachers, but do not have QTS status”.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said today’s survey results were a “damning indictment of the Coalition’s decision”.

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, who has vowed to restore the QTS requirement, said the move was “damaging school standards”.

“Labour will end David Cameron’s unqualified teacher policy, raising the bar so that all teachers are professionally qualified and continually improving throughout all stages of their careers,” he added.

The NASUWT also found that 87 per cent of parents were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of their child’s teachers. Two-thirds (67 per cent) said location was the top priority when choosing their child’s school, while just 29 per cent said they checked league tables when looking for a school.

“It is clear that punitive ranking of schools in performance league tables is not something on which the majority of parents rely and therefore schools, parents and children are subjected to this negative annual ritual unnecessarily,” Ms Keates added.

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