Unqualified staff in our classrooms

I AM deeply concerned about an issue which doesn’t always get a lot of press coverage, but I think is very important for the future of our country – the increasing use of unqualified staff in our schools.

Since the law was changed, when Michael Gove was Education Secretary, to allow academies and free schools to use unqualified staff in place of teachers, there has been a gradual increase in the number of lessons taken by people who are not qualified teachers.

Freedom of Information requests in different parts of the country suggest that as many 10-11% of lessons in many schools are now being taken by such staff.

As the trend at present is upwards, it is not unreasonable to project forward to a time in five or 10 years, when 20-30% of lessons in our schools will be taken by unqualified staff.

This is clearly going to be damaging to the education of our nation’s children. Would parents allow their children to be treated by an unqualified doctor or dentist? Would you get on a plane being flown by unqualified pilots? If not, then why should the vitally important job of teaching be left to those who are not qualified to do it?

The teaching of our nation’s children is too important to be left to anybody who is not fully qualified to do it.

We need to return to a system whereby all children are taught by qualified teachers, who are treated well and paid a reasonable rate. A lowly qualified, low-paid teaching profession, suffering low morale, will not help us a nation to face the challenges of the 21st century.

PETER SAGAR