TEACHING assistants in the North-East are among the lowest paid in the country, with some earning less than £5 an hour, a survey has revealed.

Research by the public service union, Unison, to which many teaching assistants belong, showed they could earn as little as £7,125 a year in South Tyneside, compared to as much as £18,000 in Gloucestershire.

Unison, which introduced the report at a conference in Bournemouth, said it was time the Government introduced a national pay scale to ensure all teaching assistants got a fair deal.

The survey was based on responses from more than 900 schools and 45 local education authorities.

Just under half of schools employed teaching assistants on a permanent, all-year-round basis, while four out of ten employed teaching assistants on term contracts.

About half said they paid assistants during the school holidays, while 40 per cent did so for part of the time - although Unison advised that the figures had to be treated with caution given the amount of variation across England.

Unison's senior national education officer Christina McAnea said: "This survey clearly demonstrates what Unison has been saying for a long time - teaching assistants are on appalling rates of pay, even though their work is vital for delivering education in the classroom."