Submitted by martin on 25 April, 2012 - 6:44
An accumulation of small cuts means that the number of teachers in England's state schools - which had been rising for a decade - fell by 10,000 in the year to November 2011.
The BBC (25 April) reports that an official workforce survey showed 2% fewer teachers.
The number of teaching assistants is still rising. It has almost trebled since 2000, and there is now one teaching assistant for every two teachers.
The hidden story there is that often teaching assistants, with much lower pay than teachers and less training, are being pushed into taking classes previously taught by qualified teachers.
The BBC also reports that about half the state secondary schools in England are now academies.
