Teachers have welcomed the back-up teaching assistants can give in the classroom but have massively rejected their use as substitute teachers.

Over eighty per cent of teachers saw the benefit of teaching assistants in giving support to pupils, but the survey also found that more than one in ten teachers have no access to support from teaching assistants.

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the NUT, told ePolitix.com: "This is the first time teachers have been asked for their views on the role of teaching assistants and they have made it clear how valuable is their contribution.

"Teachers have positive views on the role of teacher assistants, on their training needs and on the terms and conditions of employment they should enjoy.

"Teachers are deeply suspicious of the government agenda for teaching assistants. They have emphasised that they are there to support not supplant teachers. They reject any idea of teaching assistants being used as cheap substitutes to overcome teacher shortages.

"The survey also underlines the need for additional clerical and administrative support if the government is to fulfil its promise to reduce the bureaucratic burdens on teachers. The vast majority of teachers either have no access or far too little access to administrative support.

"The message for the government is clear. Teachers' workload is not reduced by the provision of teaching assistants but they do bring undoubted benefits to pupils which teachers value highly.

"If the workload problem is to be addressed then the government must provide the funding for the clerical and administrative support and to attract more young people into the profession."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Alison Johnston, senior professional officer at the Professional Association of Teachers, told ePolitix.com: "Teaching assistants' role is not to replace teachers, but to support them. However, they are not there simply to undertake mundane tasks, such as copying and filing, for teachers. They are professionals in their own right.

"Teaching assistants have a vital role in supporting children's learning - especially in literacy, numeracy and special needs. Education benefits from, to use PAT's phrase, a 'whole team' of professionals.

"However, we must make sure teaching/classroom assistants receive appropriate training, as we know that many are frustrated by the lack of training available.

"We support recommendations made to the government by Ofsted in its recent evaluation of teaching assistants to simplify the funding arrangements for employing teaching assistants and to continue to develop a structure of qualifications and career progression.

"In 1999, PAT launched Classroom Assistants: a Career Ladder and in 2000 proposals for a Chartered Teaching Assistants scheme to give these fellow professionals proper recognition, using a three-stage system based on qualifications, experience and ongoing professional training."