WELSH TEACHER NUMBERS IN DECLINE

Released 28/08/2008

Tories attack assembly for recruiting teaching assistants

The Welsh Conservative party has criticised the assembly government for recruiting more teaching assistants, while the number of teachers declines.

It has accused the government of 'trying to get education on the cheap', according to the Western Mail reports.

But secretary of the NUT Cymru David Evans has argued that the declining number of teachers can actually be attributed to the fall in rolls in schools throughout the country.

Furthermore, he argued that schools are not overworking teaching assistants.

"There had been concerns that the workload agreement would see an over-reliance on teaching assistants to cover for the preparation time given to teachers, but this has not happened," he told the paper.

But Mr Evans did call on the government to prioritise cutting class sizes rather than teaching posts.

A lack of positions in Wales are leading to many newly qualified teachers leaving to find work in other UK regions, it emerged last week.

Source: NUT
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