Early Education representative Anne Roberts, a Swansea schools inspector and former headteacher, said the Welsh Assembly's proposal to give schools flexibility in deciding how additional support funds are spent was an important step forward in relieving teachers' workload.
Mrs Roberts, who is the former development officer of Early Education in Wales, said, 'A school head and their staff will be able to choose whether they need an extra classroom assistant or maybe someone who can help with photocopying and form-filling. Paperwork is a time-consuming thing, some of which you don't have to be a teacher to do.'
Announcing the change management project and an additional 3m in administrative support for schools last week, Welsh education minister Jane Davidson said, 'It is important that each school considers its own particular needs in a practical way tailored to its circumstances.' The pilot will take place in 2003-04 with the longer-term aim of rolling it out across all schools in Wales, and funding for administrative support will rise to 15m by 2005-06.
The proposals follow the Report on the Project to Reduce the Bureaucratic Burdens on Schools, which was endorsed by the Assembly last year.
In her address to the Assembly Ms Davidson said she wanted to consider 'with our partners in education how the role of support staff can be developed and what action can better meet their training and career needs'.
Anne Roberts, who also works as a volunteer in a primary school where her daughter teaches, said classroom assistants need better training for the tasks they currently undertake.
'I don't think they can be expected to take over a class. It's not just a question of liking children, they need basic training in how to talk to and question children in the work they already do.'
* Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, welcomed the plan to create a 'new professional grade of teaching assistant' in England outlined by Estelle Morris before she resigned as education secretary, but said the detail of how it would work in practice had to be studied carefully. 'Training is essential and must go hand-in-hand with a proper salary structure as teachers have. There needs to be a national pay scale for teaching assistants or firm government guidance on this.'
* See Special Report next week