Teaching assistants (TAs) improve classroom discipline and reduce teachers' stress levels and workload but fail to boost pupils' progress, according to the largest-ever study on the impact of support staff in schools.
Indeed, the research team from the Institute of Education at London University found the more support pupils received, the less progress they actually made.
TAs usually work with children needing the most help, which means these pupils spend less time being taught by their teacher.
Since 1997 the school workforce has grown by nearly 50 per cent. There are now 441,300 teachers, a rise of 10 per cent, and 183,200 teaching assistants, a threefold increase. An Audit Commission report in June questioned the huge rise, arguing that research was needed to justify spending so much on TAs, particularly in a recession.
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