Supplementary evidence from David Miliband
MP, Minister of State for School Standards
I welcomed the opportunity to give oral evidence
on teacher recruitment and retention to the Education and Skills
Select Committee on 9 July. I promised to write to you with some
more detail on a small number of issues. This letter discharges
that, but do let me know if you need anything more.
First, you asked how many of the 3,700 increase
in the number of employment-based trainees working in schools
between January 1997 and January 2003 have gained Qualified Teacher
Status (QTS). When I appeared before the Committee, I said that
I thought that about 900 of the 4,200 total shown in the January
2003 survey had already been awarded QTS. That figure was correct
at the time. It has risen since and, by 31 July, had gone up to
1,963. Since January, there have also been well over 1,000 new
entrants to the employment-based training programmes.
The budget for specific recruitment and retention
incentives, including Initial Teacher Training and the funding
of the TTA, amounts to almost £400 million in this financial
year. However, as I sought to explain in my written memorandum,
all of our policies have a bearing on recruitment and retention
to one degree or another. There is therefore force in the argument
that funding for other related initiatives and programmes (such
as the workforce reform, reducing bureaucracy, CPD, leadership
and behaviour projects) can also be said to be squarely in support
of recruitment and retention.
We also discussed the retention rates for entrants
into the teaching profession at different ages, and since 1997
how many have remained within the profession. Details are given
in the attached annex, broken down by age and gender. These demonstrate
that, whilst there still remains work to be done in retaining
teachers, the profession compares well with other public sector
professions.
Finally, there were 2,178 recruits with a minority
ethnic background to college-based courses of initial teacher
training in England in 2002-03, of whom 827 (38%) were on primary
and 1,351 (62%) were on secondary courses. This does not include
recruits to employment-based programmes, of whom around 11% are
from minority ethnic communities.
I hope that this is what the Committee wants.
But, as I say, if you would like any more detail just let me know.
19 August 2003
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