IF you went to a hospital for a major operation, you would expect to be treated by a fully qualified surgeon. So why is it then going on for 10 per cent of lessons in our schools are now being taken by staff not qualified as teachers?
To save money, academies and free schools are using non-qualified staff as a cheap alternative to proper qualified teachers, while a number of primary schools are taking teaching assistants away from the important work that they do and asking them to take lessons, which they are not supposed to be taking.
The context for this situation is, of course, the huge and very damaging cuts which are taking place in education and the enormous recruitment and retention crisis in the teaching profession, as successive Government initiatives have made the job increasingly unattractive.
Our children deserve to be taught by qualified teachers and if the Government continues to attack and downgrade the teaching profession, it is playing a very dangerous game.
Peter Sagar, Newcastle
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