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Class Sizes

Dr. Hampson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of primary schools and secondary schools currently have classes of more than 30; and what were the figures in 1976. [2709]

Mr. Robin Squire: Sixty-five per cent. of primary schools and sixty-one per cent. of secondary schools had at least one class of more than 30 pupils taught by one teacher in January 1996. Comparable information is not available for 1976.

Teacher Training

Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what were the costs to the Teacher Training Agency of preparing advice to her Department on the future supply of teachers in each of the last three years. [2956]

Mr. Forth: It is not one of the Teacher Training Agency's statutory functions to offer advice to DFEE on the future supply of teachers.

Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what were the costs to the Teacher Training Agency in the last full year for which figures are available of (a) the procedures required for the approval and scrutiny of courses of initial teacher education and (b) the scrutiny and development of criteria and courses of continuing professional development for assistant and head teachers. [2955]

Mr. Forth: The Teacher Training Agency is responsible for the accreditation of providers of initial teacher training, a function which replaced individual approval of courses by DFEE in 1995. The Office for Standards in Education is responsible for the inspection of initial teacher training.

In respect of continuing professional development, the TTA maintains a list of registered providers of training under head teachers leadership and management programme, Headlamp; has drawn up standards to underpin the development of the national professional qualification for headship; and is developing at the Secretary of State's request a fuller professional framework with standards and training at other levels. Ofsted is inspecting at TTA's request the training offered by registered Headlamp providers, and has more general functions in respect of the inspection of in-service teacher training.

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 77

I will ask the chairman of the TTA, Geoffrey Parker, and, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead, to write to the hon. Member direct with estimated costings for relevant functions.

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what INSET funding was distributed to institutions in (a) 1993-94, (b) 1994-95 and (c) 1995-96; what is available in 1996-97; and what was the cost of administering this funding through (i) Higher Education Funding Council for England and (ii) the Teacher Training Agency during the period concerned.[2500]

Mr. Forth: Funding for higher education courses for in-service training of teachers, INSET, is calculated and distributed on the basis of academic years. This funding was not separately identified by HEFCE in 1993-94. The amount of recurrent funding allocated for such courses in later years by the HEFCE and TTA is set out in the following table.

It is impossible to identify the cost of administering this funding between 1993-94 and 1995-96 because it formed part of a larger academic subject category; the cost of administering the funding through the TTA in 1996-97 is estimated to be £28,000.

Funding for INSET courses provided by HEFCE and TTA

	£ million
1994-95 (HEFCE)	24
1995-96 (HEFCE)	25
1996-97 (TTA)	25

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much was spent on administration (a) by the Teacher Training Agency in the current year following the transfer of the teacher training responsibilities of the teaching as a career unit, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, and the Department for Education and (b) by the teaching as a career unit, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Department for Education in the full year prior to the transfer, separately identifying staff costs in cash and real terms. [2499]

Mr. Forth: The amount spent on the administration of functions which were subsequently transferred to the TTA by the teaching as a career unit, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Department for Education during 1993-94 is shown in the following table. The total amount spent on administration by the TTA during 1995-96 is also shown in the table. This covers the full range of the TTA's functions under the 1994 Act, which also includes functions transferred from HEFCE and new activities in pursuit of the agency's statutory remit.

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 78

Running costs for activities transferred to the TTA

TASC, CATE and Department(26)	1993-94
Running costs	£1,316,195
of which:
Salaries	£980,046
FTE Staff	34.8
TTA	1995-6
Running costs	£2,414,000
of which:
Salaries	£1,303,000
FTE Staff (average)	42

(26) Figures for DFE staff and costs are estimates only, as the functions formed part of the work of a number of teams.

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was spent on (a) staff and (b) administration of the Teacher Training Agency (i) from the date of its inception to the financial year end 1994-95, (ii) from April 1995 to September 1995, (iii) from October 1995 to March 1996 and (iv) from April 1996 to September 1996; and what was the number of full-time equivalent staff employed by the agency on the last day of each period. [2501]

Mr. Forth: This is a matter for the Teacher Training Agency. I will ask the chairman of the agency, Geoffrey Parker, to write to the hon. Member direct.

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the latest figures for graduates (a) applying for and (b) accepted by institutions for training as teachers by secondary schools by subject; and if she will list the equivalent figures for (i) 1994-95 and (ii) 1995-96. [2502]

Mr. Forth: The following table shows the number of graduate applications to secondary initial teacher training courses in 1994-95 and 1995-96 and the number of acceptances in 1995-96.

Postgraduate initial teacher training coursesEngland and Wales

	1994-95	1995-96
Secondary	Applications	Applications	Acceptances
Mathematics	2,186	1,873	1,257
English	2,819	2,837	1,825
Drama	339	360	225
Science	4,020	3,698	2,377
Biology	1,444	1,347	855
Chemistry	886	799	485
Physics	686	511	317
Geology	70	40	14
Comb/General Sciences	871	932	662
Env/Rural Sciences	63	69	44
Modern Languages	2,706	2,680	1,680
French	1,368	1,413	882
German	455	384	254
Italian	20	11	6
Russian	22	19	6
Spanish	269	251	133
Celtic Languages	59	52	40
Other Modern Languages	513	550	359
Technology	2,056	1,549	1,007
Design and Technology	1,189	680	456
Information Technology	73	181	106
Business Studies	713	608	386
Home Economics	81	80	59
History	1,984	2,017	885
Geography	1,280	1,297	876
PE	947	1,062	635
Art	352	939	571
Music	646	594	431
RE	741	845	603
Other	920	903	355
Economics	275	322	145
Social Studies	492	442	157
Classics	73	56	37
Outdoor Activity	80	83	16
Total secondary	20,996	20,654	12,727

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 79

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to market-test the functions of the Teacher Training Agency. [2503]

Mr. Forth: It is Government policy that every non-departmental public body should be subject to a comprehensive review at least every five years. This includes a critical examination of the justification for an NDPB on policy grounds, including whether there are other means of providing the desired services, as well as a review of the system of financial and management control. The TTA will be subject to such a review no later than the financial year 1999-2000.

The TTA already contracts out a range of recurrent work costing £1.444 million where this offers better value for money than undertaking the work in-house.

Teachers' Register

Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what were the costs, in each of the last three years, to the Department for Education and Employment, of the procedures and publication connected with the list of teachers struck off the register, temporarily or permanently. [2954]

Mr. Forth: The Department does not maintain a register of teachers. It maintains a list--List 99--of teachers and other workers in the education sector who are subject to a bar or restriction on their employment on misconduct or medical grounds. The estimated cost of the work related to barring is £297,000 in 1993-94, £324,000 in 1994-95 and £381,000 in 1995-96.

Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost, in each of the last three years to the Department for Education and Employment, of maintaining the national register of teachers in primary and secondary schools. [2953]

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 80

Mr. Forth: The Department does not maintain a register of teachers; the qualifications of teachers form part of the database of teacher records which is maintained primarily for pensions purposes. The team, whose main work is awarding qualified teacher status and collecting information for transfer to the DTR, cost about £420,000 in 1995-96, and broadly the same in real terms in the previous two financial years.

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