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Music A-level
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the adequacy of resources allocated to the teaching of music A-level; and if he will make a statement. [88010]
Jim Knight: It is for individual schools and colleges to decide which qualifications they offer post 16 and to allocate the necessary resources to deliver those qualifications.
National Vocational Qualifications
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 26 October 2005, Official Report, column 392W, on National Vocational Qualifications, how many National Vocational Qualifications were awarded in food preparation and cooking in 2005-06. [88839]
Phil Hope: There were 17,200 National Vocational Qualifications in food preparation and cookery awarded in 2004-05, which is the latest year for which information is available.
Outsourcing
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what administrative functions for which his Department is responsible are outsourced overseas; and what assessment he has made of the merits of outsourcing further such functions overseas. [81548]
Mr.
Dhanda: A complete answer could be provided only at
disproportionate cost. However, from the information we have available,
we do not appear to have outsourced any administrative functions
overseas. The Department complies with European law and the World Trade
Organisation Government Procurement Agreement
and has no plans to outsource administrative functions overseas. We will
consider the position for individual functions whenever
appropriate.
Partially Selective Schools
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many partially selective secondary schools there are within the maintained sector in England. [85975]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally as admission arrangements are set locally, after an annual consultation process.
However, we are aware of 35 schools which operate partial selection by ability or aptitude which it would not now be lawful to introduce. This is not a definitive number of such schools, and does not include those who since 1997/98 have introduced selection by aptitude of up to 10 per cent. of their intake.
Private Finance Initiative Contracts
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which local education authorities are expected to conclude new private finance initiative contracts in 2006-07. [88669]
Jim Knight: The following local authorities are expected to sign private finance initiative (PFI) contracts in 2006-07 :
Peterborough—July 2006
Lewisham—July 2006
Slough—August/September 2006
Salford—September 2006
Plymouth—December 2006
Doncaster—March 2007.
Primary School Teachers
Ms Barlow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of teachers in primary schools in England was male (a) in 1977 and (b) on the latest date for which information is available. [89146]
Jim Knight: In March 1977 23 per cent. of full-time regular qualified teachers employed in maintained primary schools were male compared to 15.7 per cent. in March 2004 (provisional). This is the latest year for which figures are available.
A time series showing the proportion of men in the teaching population between 1997 and 2004 can be found in table D4 at the following link at:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DBA/OL/v000633/Additionald.xls
Pupil Exclusions
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many permanent and fixed period exclusions took place in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each local education authority in the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by reason for exclusion. [88568]
Jim Knight: The requested information has been placed in the House Library.
Pupil Statistics
Mr.
Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for
Education and Skills in how many schools 50 per cent.
or more of the pupils do not have English as their first language,
broken down by region.
[86435]
Jim Knight: The available information is given in the table.
| Maintained primary and secondary schools( 1) : Number of schools by percentage of school population whose first language is known or believed to be other than English( 2,3) —as at January 2006 (provisional)—by Government office region | ||||||
| Number of schools | ||||||
| Percentage of school population whose first language is known or believed to be other than English is: | ||||||
| Less than 50 | 50 or more | All schools | ||||
| Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary | |
| (1)
Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Excludes
dually registered pupils. (3) Pupils of compulsory
school age and above are classified according to their first
language. Source: Schools
Census | ||||||
Pupil-Teacher Ratio
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the pupil-teacher ratio was in primary schools in Swindon in each year since 1997; [86634]
(2) what the pupil-teacher ratio was in secondary schools in Swindon in each year between 1997 and 2006. [86968]
Jim Knight: The following table provides the pupil-teacher ratio in maintained primary and secondary schools in Swindon local authority in each January from 1997 to 2005 (the latest year for which information is available at local authority level). Information for England from 1997 to 2006 is also given to enable comparison.
It is anticipated that local authority level information for January 2006 will be published in September.
| Pupil-teacher ratios( 1) in maintained primary and secondary schools in Swindon local authority and England, January 1997 to 2006 | ||||
| Primary | Secondary | |||
| Swindon | England | Swindon | England | |
| (1)
The pupil-teacher ratio is the full-time equivalent number of pupils
divided by the full-time equivalent number of qualified teachers.
Dually registered pupils are
excluded. (2) Swindon local authority was created in the local government reorganisation of 1.4.97. (3) Provisional. Source: Annual School Census | ||||
Recycling in Schools
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what targets he has set for school recycling; [86458]
(2) how much school waste was recycled in each of the last 10 years; and what plans he has to encourage schools to increase their recycling of waste; [86459]
(3) what discussions he has had with private companies on the promotion of school recycling initiatives and environmental awareness campaigns; [86460]
(4) how much school waste has been recycled by private companies in the last 10 years; [86461]
(5) what discussions he has had with European Governments on the recycling of school waste. [86464]
Mr. Dhanda: Central Government have not set any specific recycling targets for schools. There are targets for local authority recycling of household waste which does not include waste from schools. We do not know how much school waste has been recycled in the last 10 years.
As part of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) proposed Sustainable Schools Strategy we encourage schools to recycle their waste. In May we launched the Sustainable Schools Consultation introducing the national framework(1). The consultation describes eight key doorways that schools can work towards to become more Sustainable one of which is “purchasing and waste”. By 2020 our aim is for all schools to be models of resource efficiency, recycling, repairing and reusing as much as possible. We are also working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who are promoting recycling in schools through funding of the Eco-Schools Award Scheme, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and various projects funded through the Environment Action Fund.
DfES has discussed school recycling and environmental awareness campaigns with waste management companies, in particular regarding projects which were supported by the former landfill tax credit scheme which operated up until 2004.
DfES has not had discussions with European Governments on the recycling of school waste.
(1) www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools
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