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Special Educational Needs
Mr. Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many schoolchildren were designated as having special educational needs in each of the last 10 years; if he will provide a breakdown as to their acuteness; and what proportion of those children have been educated at exclusively special educational needs schools in each of those years. [18146]
Ms Estelle Morris: The following table shows the number of children with statements of SEN in January of the years 1991 to 1996 and expresses the number of children in maintained and non-maintained special schools at each January as a percentage of all children with statements. Information on the numbers of pupils with statements was collected from special schools for the first time in January 1991. Information on the full range of children with SEN, including those with less severe, needs who do not have a statement, is available only for January 1996, when the total number of children identified by schools as having SEN (including those with statements) was 1.2 million.
| All schools(12) | Special schools(13) | Per cent.(14) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 234,629 | 92,356 | 39 |
| 1996 | 227,324 | 93,268 | 41 |
| 1995 | 211,307 | 90,932 | 43 |
| 1994 | 194,541 | 88,511 | 45 |
| 1993 | 178,029 | 87,892 | 49 |
| 1992 | 160,759 | 84,132 | 52 |
| 1991 | 153,228 | 85,632 | 56 |
(12) Includes pupils in nursery, primary, secondary, special and independent schools. Pupil Referral units and City Technology Colleges.
(13) Includes pupils in maintained and non-maintained special schools but excludes pupils in Independent Special schools.
(14) The number of pupils with statements in maintained and non-maintained special schools expressed as a proportion of the number of pupils with statements in all schools.
5 Dec 1997 : Column: 392
Higher Education Teachers
Dr. Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment for what reasons the United Kingdom Government reserved its position on section 9 of the UNESCO Recommendation on the status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel; and if he will make a statement on the alterations to that recommendation sought by Her Majesty's Government. [18485]
Dr. Howells: The UNESCO General Conference adopted the Recommendation with UK support, but with the following reservation expressed by the United Kingdom and supported by Australia, New Zealand, Spain and France:
- The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and France strongly support the recommendation's aims of securing academic freedom and human rights for higher-education teaching personnel. These Member States also strongly support the principles in Section IX "Terms and Conditions of Employment". However, because the drafting of this section appears to go, in such great detail, into areas that are properly the responsibility of individual Member States and institutions, these Member States reluctantly place a reservation on this section.
On the advice of the UNESCO Secretariat, the UK Government did not seek alterations to the text of the Recommendation.
Education Expenditure
Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidance he has given to local authorities to ensure that the extra money announced in the budget for 1998-99 for education is spent on schools. [18407]
Mr. Byers: The Secretary of State has written to the Leaders of the local authorities that are responsible for education, to emphasise that the £1,017 million increase in recurrent resources announced by the Chancellor in his Budget has been made available for the people's priority of raising standards in our schools. Officials have also discussed with representatives of the Churches and Local Government organisations the principles and criteria for the allocation of the first two phases of capital funding under the New Deal for Schools. The Government wishes to work in partnership with local authorities, and these increases in funding demonstrate that.
Teachers' Holidays
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans the Government has to reduce teachers' holiday entitlements; and what assessment he has made of the effect of those plans on his programme for recruiting new teachers. [19181]
Mr. Byers: Any such proposal would have had to be referred to the School Teachers' Review Body, which would have had to consider it and make recommendations in its report which is due in February next year. No such proposal was referred to the Review Body.
Class Sizes
Mr. Jack:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what were the average class sizes in each of the schools listed in the 1997 GCSE league tables. [18332]
5 Dec 1997 : Column: 393
Mr. Byers:
Information on class sizes for individual schools is not published centrally.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) postgraduate and (b) undergraduate ITT places were unfilled in (i) 1996 and (ii) 1997. [18554]
Ms Estelle Morris
[holding answer 1 December 1997]: The information requested is shown in the following tables.
| UG | PG | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | ||
| Targets allocated to providers by TTA | 7,018 | 4,492 |
| New entrants | 7,619 | 4,862 |
| Number of unfilled places | 0 | 0 |
| Secondary | ||
| Targets allocated to providers by TTA | 3,081 | 15,689 |
| New entrants | 2,492 | 13,556 |
| Number of unfilled places | 589 | 2,133 |
| UG | PG | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | ||
| Targets allocated to providers by TTA | 6,637 | 4,386 |
| New entrants | 7,072 | 4,677 |
| Number of unfilled places | 0 | 0 |
| Secondary | ||
| Targets allocated to providers by TTA | 3,335 | 15,834 |
| New entrants | 2,543 | 13,423 |
| Number of unfilled places | 792 | 2,411 |
Data for 1997 are provisional.
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the unfilled places on school-centred initial teacher training courses as a percentage of all places in each subject in (a) 1996 and (b) 1997. [18553]
Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 1 December 1997]: The information requested is shown in the following table.
5 Dec 1997 : Column: 394
Pupil Grades
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the percentage of schools in each local education authority where both the proportion of pupils achieving five A*-C and five A*-G grades was lower in 1997 than in 1994. [18552]
Mr. Byers [holding answer 1 December 1997]: The following list gives the percentage of schools in each local education authority where both the proportion of 15-year-old pupils achieving five A*-C and five A*-G grades at GCSE was lower in 1997 than in 1994.
5 Dec 1997 : Column: 396
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