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3 Jun 2003 : Column 230W—continued
Student Finance
Mr. Simon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures his Department is taking to simplify the procedure of providing student support. [112998]
Margaret Hodge: We are modernising the delivery of statutory student support so that for the academic year 2004/05 students will need to complete fewer application forms, the burden on students to provide information and evidence will be reduced and students will be able to apply for and obtain information about student support via the internet. We are also moving towards paying all students electronically directly into their bank accounts.
We have also reduced the number of targeted grants and bursaries for students from 14 to just six.
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost was of collecting university tuition fees from students in the London Borough of Havering in the latest year for which figures are available. [115342]
Margaret Hodge: Higher education institutions themselves, not local authorities, bear the cost of collecting student contributions to tuition fees. We do not have centrally-held data on the cost to institutions, but an element of institutional funding covers the cost of administration in collecting the fee contributions.
Teacher Training
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the subjects which have missed targets for teacher training recruitment, with the extent of undershoot in each case; and if he will make a statement on (a) the consequences for schools and colleges and (b) his strategy for improving the situation. [115589]
Mr. Miliband: The table shows the number of places available on, and recruits to, courses of initial teacher training in England since 1999/2000.
(34) Technology includes design and technology, business studies and information technology.
(35) 2001/02 was the first year for recruitment to citizenship, and was included in "other" subjects along with economics and social studies. In 2002/03 places allocated to citizenship were separated out and shown separately.
Note:
The number of Fast Track recruits are shown separately because Fast Track places are not part of the TTA's number of allocated places.
Source:
TTA
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The figures do not include 10,887 recruits to employment-based teacher training programmes over this period, including 6,884 training to teach secondary subjects and 1,932 in mathematics and science alone. These programmes were designed to attract career-changers and, in tapping a new source of recruits, have more than bridged any shortfalls in conventional recruitment.
Recruitment to courses of initial teacher training in England fell for eight years in succession from 1992/93. Since the introduction of teacher training bursaries in September 2000, numbers of new entrants to teacher training have risen year on year. There have been 20 per cent. more new entrants to conventional teacher training courses in the current academic year than in 1999/2000. Figures published by the Graduate Teacher Training Registry on 7 May showed that there have been 38,118 applications for Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses so far this year, over 5,500 more than at the same point in 2002.
The increase in the numbers of entrants to teacher training that the Government's policies has secured has been accompanied by rising numbers of qualified teachers working in schools. National statistics published by my Department on 29 April show that these now stand at their highest level for 19 years.
Teaching Vacancies
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant teacher posts there were in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) all schools, as a percentage of the total number of teachers, in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110132]
Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
The table shows the number of teacher vacancies as a percentage of teachers in service in maintained nursery/primary, secondary, special schools and all maintained schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997.
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The most recent data available at local authority level is for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.
Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one term's duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts, which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made, but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less than one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.
Vacancy rates are the number of vacancies as a percentage of full-time regular teachers (or those on secondment) in service.
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant (a) head teacher posts, (b) deputy head teacher and (c) teacher posts there were in (i) primary schools, (ii) secondary schools and (iii) special schools in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110133]
Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
The table shows deputy head teacher, head teacher and classroom teacher vacancies in maintained nursery/primary, secondary and special schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997.
The most recent data available at local authority level are for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.
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Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one term's duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts, which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less that one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant deputy head teacher posts there were in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) special schools and (d) all schools as a percentage of the total number of deputy head teachers, in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [110147]
Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
The table shows the number of deputy head teacher vacancies as a percentage of teachers in service in maintained nursery/primary, secondary and all maintained schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997. Rates have not been provided for special schools because of the very small numbers involved (there were 30 deputy head vacancies in England in 2002).
The most recent data available at local authority level is for January 2002. Recently published provisional vacancy information at national level shows that vacancies in maintained schools decreased from 4,540 in 2002 to 3,400 in 2003. The vacancy rate reduced from 1.2 per cent. in 2002 to 0.9 per cent. in 2003.
Vacancies are recorded for posts which have been advertised for full-time appointments of at least one term's duration, that exist on the 618G survey date of the third Thursday in January. These are posts which the local education authority/school intends to fill, including those for which they have unsuccessfully attempted to make an appointment, or for which an appointment has been made but the appointee has not taken up the post. A post which has been filled by a temporary appointment of less than one term, pending the finding of a more permanent appointee, is regarded as a vacancy. A post would not be recorded as a vacancy if someone appointed to that post on a full-time contract of one term or more has filled the post.
Vacancy rates are the number of vacancies as a percentage of full-time regular teachers (or those on secondment) in service.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacancies there are in secondary schools for (a) physics, (b) chemistry, (c) mathematics and (d) IT teachers at (i) GCSE and (ii) A Level; and what recent steps he has taken to attract people into teaching science and technology-related subjects. [116617]
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Mr. Miliband: The information is not available in the form requested.
National statistics published by my Department on 29 April 2003 included provisional numbers of full-time teacher vacancies by secondary subject at January 2003. These showed that there were 40 vacancies for teachers of physics; 40 for teachers of chemistry; 320 for teachers of mathematics; and 110 for teachers of information technology. The total number of vacancies for classroom teachers in maintained secondary schools in England fell by 410 between January 2002 and January 2003.
In September 2000, the Government introduced £6,000 bursaries for postgraduate trainee teachers and £4,000 Golden Hellos for those going on to teach the priority subjects of mathematics, science, modern languages, technology and English. From September 2002, these incentives are being reinforced by a scheme to repay, over time, the student loans of new teachers of the priority subjects. These incentives have helped to ensure that recruitment to initial teacher training is higher than its 1999/2000 level by 29 per cent. in mathematics; 14 per cent. in science; and 41 per cent. in technology. Figures published by the Graduate Teacher Training Registry on 7 May 2003 show that applications for postgraduate teacher training courses for 2003/04 are currently running above last year's level by 36 per cent. in mathematics; by 14 per cent. in science; and by 44 per cent. in technology.
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