I recently sent an email to all the major political parties regarding the increasing use of unqualified staff in schools. The only response I got was from Plaid Cymru. I was given a rather incomprehensible response as follows:



"Plaid Cymru believes that the ability of schools to serve children and their families successfully is wholly dependent on the commitment and hard work of Wales’ teachers and support staff. Our aim when in Government will be to provide teachers with the support and training to give them genuinely professional status. Plaid will ensure that children are taught by qualified, registered teachers supported by classroom assistants. Plaid will create a clear training and career pathway for classroom assistants supported by a national pay frame. We will also guarantee a year’s teaching experience to all teachers who are newly qualified in Wales to ensure they can complete their Induction year and become Qualified Registered Teachers.

We believe that the National Assembly for Wales should seek to create a new Teaching Profession for Wales; robust and confident in its ability to offer learners the highest quality of education, expecting rigorous standards of its members and attracting to it, the very best of our citizens. In order to achieve this, it is of fundamental importance that we improve recruitment to the teaching profession at primary and secondary level. This will require improvements in salaries, working conditions and career progression, designed to raise the perception of teaching and the public esteem in which the profession is held."



All I wanted was an answer to the question on where they stood on a swell of qualified teachers who now have little or no hope of ever teaching in a school again because of the rapidly increasing use of unqualified staff. It is happening right now. Is my question that complicated?