| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
9 Dec 2004 : Column 769W—continued
EU Regulation
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the European Union directives and regulations relating to his Department that have been implemented in each of the last two years, specifying (a) the title and purpose of each, (b) the cost to public funds of each and (c) the cost to businesses of each. [200831]
Dr. Howells:
Since November 2002 the following EU directives and regulations have been implemented by the Department for Education and Skills.
9 Dec 2004 : Column 770W
The Department for Education and Skills has responsibility for implementing directive 92/51/EEC on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training. UK regulations which give effect to directive 92/51/EEC, were drafted and came into force on 1 January 2003 (S.I. 2002/2934). These regulations consolidated and re-enacted previous implementing UK regulations and made some amendments. The regulations apply to all professions which are regulated by law or public authority. They provide for a scheme for the recognition of qualifications of migrants from member states of the European Community (or from Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein or Switzerland) seeking to take up or pursue a profession which is regulated in the UK.
The cost to public funds was the cost of drafting the implementing UK legislation. The Department does not generally hold cost information in this form.
The cost of implementation to businesses takes the form of administrative costs to the regulatory authorities who administer the process of recognition. These bodies are able to levy an administration fee upon individuals for the processing of applications for recognition.
In addition, the DfES took over responsibility for directive 89/48/EEC, First General System for Recognition of Professional Qualifications, and directive 99/42/EC, Third General System for the Recognition of Qualifications and Experience, from the DTI in August 2003. This gives the DfES the entire responsibility for the general system of recognition of professional qualifications and education. These directives have not required implementing UK legislation since the responsibility transferred to the DfES.
Foreign Language Teachers
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what steps have been taken to recruit foreign language teachers for primary schools. [202909]
Mr. Miliband: There has been considerable progress on the development of language learning in primary schools, underpinned by the launch in December 2002 of the Government's National Languages Strategy for England. The Strategy recognises the importance of developing a workforce to implement primary language learning, and much of our work to date has focussed on this area.
In developing a school workforce, we are building up a cadre of both specialist teachers and non-teacher specialists to support primary language learning. 580 places have been allocated this year for Primary Initial Teacher Training with a specialism in French, German, Spanish or Italian, and we intend to expand this programme further next year. This means that over 1,200 teacher trainees will have been trained by the end of this year. In addition we have allocated 50 primary MFL places a year to the Graduate Teacher Programme.
For existing teachers, we have funded primary MFL Advanced Skills Teacher posts and are working with the TTA to develop and pilot CPD courses for existing primary teachers to enhance language skills and MFL pedagogy.
9 Dec 2004 : Column 771W
For non-teacher specialists, we are working with the British Council to extend the foreign language assistants programme into primary schools, and are developing training for teaching assistants to support primary language learning.
Head Teachers
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if he will list head teachers by (a) race and (b) gender in (i) England, (ii) each region and (iii) each local education authority. [202910]
Mr. Miliband: Information on the ethnic origin of head teachers is not collected centrally.
The following table gives the number of full-time regular head teachers by gender for maintained sector schools in England listed by region and local education authority at March 2003, (the latest information available by gender).
The information is taken from the Database of Teachers' Records a database maintained primarily for pensions purposes. LEAs are shown as not available where data are insufficiently complete to be reliable. National and regional totals show data for all LEAs.
n/a Not available
(24) Nil or less than 5
9 Dec 2004 : Column 774W
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |