NASUWT breaks ranks with other unions and backs controversial plan to let support staff cover for sick teachers. Warwick Mansell and Jon Slater report
BRITAIN’s second largest classroom union is expected to back government proposals to allow support staff to take charge of lessons when a teacher calls in sick.
In a controversial move - which puts it at loggerheads with fellow unions, heads and employers - the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers has reconsidered its opposition to the plan because it believes it could take the pressure off overworked teachers.
As The TES revealed last month, the Government has put forward a new career structure for teaching assistants which includes allowing senior support staff to control classes in teachers’ absence.
Ministers remain nervous about the proposals, howver. A Government source said their role was still under discussion and that any changes “must not undermine teachers’ professionalism.”
A survey by the rival National Union of Teachers, to be published next week, is expected to show that as many as nine out of 10 teachers oppose assistants taking charge.
Chris Keates, NASUWT deputy general secretary, said the union’s executive was likely to support moves to allow assistants to take control if a proper career structure is developed. The move will be discussed by the union’s salaries committee later this month.
Ms Keates said: “Some will say that this is a teachers’ role, that only qualified teachers should be doing this. But is it really teaching when you cannot get a supply teacher and someone simply stands in and supervises pupils working?”
Teachers are currently contractually obliged to cover for colleagues for the first three days of their absence.
The NUT survey is expected to show that, although teachers welcome more help from support staff, they want their role restricted. They want assistants to focus on helping pupils complete work set by teachers and on pastoral duties such as, out-of-lesson supervision and working with disruptive children rather than taking lessons.
John Bangs, head of education of the NUT, said: “There should be enough supply teachers to cover for absent teachers. Covering vacancies and absences is not an appropriate role for teaching assistants.”
Both heads’ associations oppose the idea. John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: “When someone is covering for someone else, you want that to be a learning experience, not a baby-sitting experience.”
Assistants in France, 20
