5
June
2013
Teaching Assistants are not a “mums army” but education’s hidden professionals and are a vital integral part of our education system and should be recognised as such says GMB Trade Union.
GMB, the trade union for school Teaching Assistants, carried an emergency motion today 4th June at GMB Congress in Plymouth on reports about sacking school support staff. See notes to editors for text of the motion and copy of speech supporting the motion.
Avril Chambers, GMB National Officer for education staff, said “The Tories and their fan club have sought to undermine the work of teaching assistants for the last decade.
The evidence though is clear, where school support staffs are deployed correctly, they play a major positive role in improving educational outcomes. Classroom support staffs are vital to the modern school environment and in meeting the educational and wider needs of today's school children.
They are not a “mums army” as Michael Gove so insultingly calls them. They are education’s hidden professionals and are a vital integral part of our education system and should be recognised as such.”
