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Specialist Schools

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 25 June 2003, Official Report, column 783W, on specialist schools, if he will assess, with reference to sports specialist colleges, the finding in the report by Professor David Jesson that small differences of up to plus or minus 2.5 percentage points between predicted and actual levels of performance are not statistically significant. [133415]

Mr. Miliband: In his report, Professor David Jesson found that 'small differences of up to plus or minus 2.5 percentage points between predicted and actual levels of performance are not statistically significant for schools of average size'. This means that differences of less than 2.5 percentage points are within the uncertainty of the predicted level and therefore should not be heeded at a single school level. Uncertainty in statistical estimates generally decreases with the square of the sample size. For example, increasing a sample 100-fold will generally decrease the uncertainty of estimates from that sample by a factor of 10. Given this, when comparing the difference in performance between groups of schools such as Specialist Sports Colleges with non-selective other schools (95 and 2,342 schools respectively), a difference of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points is statistically significant due to the large number of schools involved.

Supply Teachers

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many supply teachers were employed in each year since 1997, and what proportion of those had qualified teacher status, broken down by local education authority. [133692]

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Mr. Miliband: The table, which has been placed in the Library, shows occasional teachers in each local education authority in the maintained sector in January of each year and the percentage of those teachers who had qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2003. Data on the percentage of occasional teachers with qualified teacher status is not available for years prior to 2003.

Teacher Costs

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his Department estimates to be the total average annual salary cost to (a) schools, (b) his Department and (c) local education authorities of (i) a newly qualified teacher, (ii) a teacher with five years experience in teaching and (iii) a teacher nearing retirement in 2002–03. [133668]

Mr. Miliband : For England and Wales, estimated average costs of the specified categories of teachers in England and Wales as at March 2002 (the latest available data) are as follows:

Average salary of full-time qualified regular teachers in the maintained schools sector in England and Wales, March 2002

Teacher group	Average salary(24)(£)	On-costs in 2001–02(25)(%)	Average cost as at March 2002 (£)
(i) Newly qualified teacher(21)	18,100	14.2	20,700
(ii) Teacher with five years service(22)	25,300	14.9	29,100
(iii) Teacher nearing retirement age(23)	32,900	15.5	38,000

⁽²¹⁾ Includes all those gaining Qualified Teacher Status in 2001 who were then in full-time regular service in the maintained schools sector in England and Wales at 31 March 2002. Includes those with some previous experience before gaining QTS. Figures rounded to the nearest hundred pounds.

⁽²²⁾ Includes qualified teachers in full-time regular service in the maintained schools sector in England and Wales who had between 5 and 6 years' service in the maintained schools sector at 31 March 2002.

⁽²³⁾ Includes qualified teachers in full-time regular service in the maintained schools sector in England and Wales who were aged between 55 and 60 years at 31 March 2002.

⁽²⁴⁾ Average salary figures include any allowances paid. Figures are provisional.

⁽²⁵⁾ On-Costs were calculated using the 2001–02 Secondary Threshold, Lower and Upper Earning Limits and National Insurance Contribution Rates.

Source:

DfES Database of Teacher Records

Schools responsible for their own budgets pay the whole employment cost of their teachers; LEAs pay the salaries of unattached teachers. The Department pays a number of grants which contribute to various teachers' salary costs, but these cannot be separated out in these figures.

Teacher Training

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of students (a) started and (b) completed teacher training courses for each yearly intake between 1995 and 2001. [134191]

Mr. Miliband: Course length data for new entrants is not available for all years and so it is not possible to match completers, entrants to give a meaningful proportion of completers to entrants in each year.

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The data which is available is shown as follows:

Table 1: The number of entrants to postgraduate and undergraduate teacher training courses

	Undergraduate	Postgraduate	Total
1995/96	10,820	18,010	28,830
1996/97	10,110	18,920	28,430
1997/98	9,620	18,100	27,720
1998/99	8,790	17,420	26,210
1999/2000	8,510	17,460	25,970
2000/01	8,100	19,620	27,720
2001/02	7,830	21,360	29,190

Note:

These figures include trainees on the Fast Track scheme, but excludes the increasing number of trainees on employment based routes

Table 2: The number of successful completers gaining QTS on teacher training courses

	Undergraduate	Postgraduate	Total
1995/96	(26)n/a	(26)n/a	(26)n/a
1996/97	9,267	16,046	25,313
1997/98	8,673	15,364	24,037
1998/99	8,907	15,164	24,071
1999/2000	6,847	14,847	21,694
2000/01	6,489	16,153	22,642
2001/02	6,415	19,074	25,489

⁽²⁶⁾ Data for 1995/96 from the Performance Profiles is not available

Source:

TTA Performance Profiles

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the pass/fail rate was of teacher trainees sitting the (a) basic literacy test and (b) basic numeracy test set by the Teacher Training Agency each year between 1996 and 2002. [134192]

Mr. Miliband: The numeracy skills test was introduced in the summer term of 2000 and the literacy test was introduced for those seeking qualified teacher status (QTS) from 1 May 2001. Of those who sat the tests, the statistics in the following table show the pass rates:

Percentage

	2000/01	2001/02
Numeracy skills test	98	98
Literacy skills test	99	99

Teacher Vacancies

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacant teacher posts existed in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) special schools in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority. [133678]

Mr. Miliband: The teacher vacancies in maintained nursery/primary, secondary and special schools by local education authority in January of each year since 1997 are contained in tables, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries.

Teenage Pregnancies

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for what reasons 1998 was used

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as the baseline year for calculating teenage pregnancy rates since the launch of the teenage pregnancy strategy. [133146]

Margaret Hodge: In 1998, the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) was asked by the Prime Minister to study the causes of teenage pregnancy and to develop a strategy to reduce the high rates of teenage pregnancy and parenthood in England. Following the publication of the SEU report on Teenage Pregnancy in June 1999, the Teenage Pregnancy Unit was set up in the Department of Health. 1998 was used as the baseline year for calculating teenage pregnancy rates as data for that year were the latest available at the time the Teenage Pregnancy Unit began implementing the Strategy's 30 point action plan in 2000.

Training and Enterprise Council

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his Answer of 1 September 2003, Official Report, column 774W, on the Training and Enterprise Council, when he intends to publish the consolidated accounts for the Training and Enterprise Councils for 2001; and if he will make a statement. [132858]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Only the TECs who operated Group structures produced consolidated accounts for the period April 2000 to March 2001, copies of these are held by the Department. The Department has only ever provided aggregate TEC/CCTE Income and Expenditure Accounts (for England and Wales). The last set covering 1999–2000 were published and laid in the House on March 2002. Due to reduced resources within the TEC network and the work being undertaken by many of them prior to entering liquidation, there was insufficient information available within the necessary timescale to provide the aggregate Income and Expenditure account for April 00 to March 01.

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