A deputy headteacher has confronted the Government's schools minister after discovering his teaching assistant wife earns less than a Tesco check-out assistant.

Deputy headteacher of Chelmsford's King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford, Robin Bevan, tackled the minister after he sang the praises of school support staff at the Association of Teachers' and Lecturers (ATL) annual conference.

At a press conference after Mr Twigg spoke to the ATL, Mr Bevan told the minister his wife, Marion 'gets less than a Tesco check-out assistant'.

Mr Bevan demanded: "Do something about it no, seriously, do something about it.

"At the moment, we've got classroom assistants being paid incredibly low rates of pay, on term-time contracts only.

"They are the last people on the budget to find out if they have their work, yet often they are taking on the most difficult cases."

Mr Twigg replied: "What we've said is, clearly, these decisions are made at local level.

"There are good reasons for that. What we want to do is learn from the best local practice so teaching assistants do get the rates of pay and recognition they deserve."

Oxford-educated Mr Twigg earns £84,483 as a junior minister. Mr Bevan said his wife, who has a degree in social science and a postgraduate certificate in child development, earned in the region of £5 an hour but was only paid for the time she worked during terms.

Published Thursday April 8, 2004

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