House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 02 Jun 2008 (pt 0008)

2 Jun 2008 : Column 560W—continued

Specialised Diplomas

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what methods schools and colleges may employ to select students for diploma courses; and if he will make a statement. [207505]

Jim Knight: The prime criterion for deciding whether a young person undertakes a diploma is whether it is the best option for him or her. Diplomas, along with apprenticeships and general qualifications, are an important part of ensuring the right choices are available to young people.

Specialist Schools

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his most recent estimate is of the number of maintained secondary schools which are entitled to but have not yet become specialist schools; and what his most recent estimate is of the annual cost of increasing the funding of these schools to the average level of schools granted specialist status. [201103]

Jim Knight: There are 343 maintained secondary schools which are not specialist, although these are not all eligible to join the programme because they do not
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all meet the requirements of the Specialist Schools programme. Should they all join the programme, the extra revenue cost would be around £33.3 million.

Teachers: Mathematics

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what the minimum level qualification in mathematics is for a qualified teacher of mathematics in a (a) primary and (b) secondary school; [206351]

(2) what estimate he has made of the average level qualification in mathematics of recently qualified teachers of mathematics in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools. [206352]

Jim Knight: The minimum qualification level required of someone entering initial teacher training (ITT) is an equivalent to a grade C GCSE in English and mathematics. Those training to teach pupils aged three to 11 must additionally have reached this standard in a science subject. This minimum standard must be reached in order to train for the primary or secondary phase and in any subject, At the end of their training, all trainees must pass the skills tests in numeracy, literacy and ICT and be awarded Qualified Teacher Status before they can be classed as a qualified teacher.

The 2002 Secondary School Curriculum and Staffing Survey reported that 42 per cent. of maths teachers had
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a relevant degree in the subject they taught and 76 per cent. had a relevant post A-level qualification. The 2007 report will be published on 29 May providing an update on these figures, There are no comparable data available for primary teachers.

It is not possible to make an estimate of average mathematics qualifications of new teachers. Those who trained as undergraduates may have gained a mathematics degree as part of their ITT programme; some trainees may have mathematics-related qualifications that are not collected in the application process and others may have gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in mathematics as part of their ITT.

Teachers: Pay

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average salary of teachers in (a) Cornwall, (b) the South West and (c) England was in each year since 1979. [205618]

Jim Knight: The following table provides the gross average salary, including all allowances, of full-time regular qualified teachers of all grades in local authority maintained nursery/primary and secondary schools in Cornwall, the south west Government office region and England and Wales for each year, where available, since 1979. Figures from 1979 to 1993 are only available for England and Wales not for teachers other than in nursery/primary and secondary schools.

Gross average salary, of full-time regular qualified teachers in local authority maintained nursery/primary and secondary schools^{( 1)} in Cornwall, the south west Government office region, England and England and Wales
£
	Cornwall	South West	England	England and Wales
1979	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	5,060
1980	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	6,090
1981	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	7,640
1982	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	8,300
1983	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	8,890
1984	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	9,400
1985	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	9,950
1986	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	10,850
1987	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	12,410
1988	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	13,400
1989	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	14,380
1990	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	15,520
1991	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	17,140
1992	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	19,230
1993	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	⁽²⁾—	20,750
1994	20,890	20,790	21,040	20,970
1995	20,890	22,620	21,040	21,550
1996	22,080	21,850	22,080	22,060
1997	22,810	22,600	22,810	22,790
1998	23,500	23,210	23,440	23,430
1999	24,500	24,120	24,340	24,340
2000	25,340	25,000	25,290	25,280
2001	27,100	26,820	27,120	27,120
2002	28,170	27,980	28,580	28,580
2003	29,880	29,650	30,350	30,340
2004	31,100	30,820	31,620	31,580
2005⁽³⁾	32,380	32,050	32,800	32,790
2006⁽³⁾	33,470	33,170	33,830	33,820
⁽¹⁾ Figures up to 1993 include sixth form colleges. ^{(2 )}Not available. ⁽³⁾ Provisional estimates. Source: Database of Teacher records.

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Teachers: Qualifications

Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary school teachers had a (i) first, (ii) upper second, (iii) lower second and (iv) third class degree in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [206230]

Jim Knight: The information requested is held for an estimated 65 per cent. of full-time regular qualified
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nursery/primary teachers and 74 per cent. of secondary school teachers in service in the local authority maintained sector in England. The following table provides a breakdown of the class of degree held by these teachers in March 2006, the latest for which teachers in service can be identified. Information for previous years will be less complete and therefore does not provide directly comparable information.

Degree class of full-time regular qualified nursery/primary and secondary teachers in England, March 2006^{( 1)}
Class of degree	Nursery/primary	Secondary
First class honours	4.2	4.8
Upper second class honours	7.5	8.7
Lower second class honours	5.2	6.4
Undivided second class honours	75.8	67.9
Third class honours	0.5	0.9
Unclassified honours	4.5	7.6
Pass	1.1	1.4
Degrees awarded outside the UK	1.2	2.4
Total	100.0	100.0
⁽¹⁾ Provisional. Source: Database of teacher records and GTCE.

Teachers: Redundancy

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many teacher redundancies there were in England in each year from 1997 to 2007; and if he will make a statement. [205993]

Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally.

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