HC Deb 08 November 1988 vol 140 cc155-7
1. Mr. Barry Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what new plans he has to attract more mathematics and physics graduates into teaching.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. John Butcher)

We have had in place for more than two years an action programme to attract more mathematics and physics graduates into initial teacher training. It has reversed the earlier trend of decline in recruitment. This action programme continues. We monitor recruitment trends closely and we will not hesitate to take further action should it be necessary.

Mr. Field

Does my hon. Friend appreciate the considerable concern felt by industry and commerce about the number of school leavers going to university to study mathematics and physics? Will he assure the House that he will examine carefully every proposal from industrialists to ensure that our education system produces more actuaries than artists and more physicists than philosophers?

Mr. Butcher

I am glad that my hon. Friend did not refer to an avalanche of accountants or a surfeit of solicitors. I have a great deal of sympathy with his point. What matters is that we have an adequate supply of teachers who are qualified to teach mathematics and physics to advanced level so that the admission tutors of universities can be pleased with the quality of applicants for places.

My hon. Friend will be encouraged to know of the £1,300 bursary for trainee teachers of mathematics, physics and craft, design and technology. In a previous incarnation I chaired a committee that involved the new partnership programme in bringing £43 million extra expenditure into higher education, in conjunction with the private sector, to attack the shortages in exactly these disciplines.

Mr. Roy Hughes

Does the Minister recognise that when our bright young graduates see all the rewards that are paid to so-called yuppies in the City it is no wonder that they decide not to become mathematics and physics teachers? Does not the solution lie in the Government's hands—to ensure that these teachers are properly rewarded on a scale commensurate with their role in society and their importance to the nation?

Mr. Butcher

I agree with the hon. Gentleman's last sentence. Our success in attracting appropriately qualified teachers will be a function of two factors; first, the overall level of teachers' pay, which has risen by an average 31 per cent. since March 1986, and by 13 per cent. in real terms—a major achievement. Secondly, an able, newly qualified mathematics or physics teacher can expect, because of the shortage, a rapid rise in promotion and pay. He or she also has the additional opportunity to tap into incentive allowances of between £800 and £4,000 a year, so the framework already exists.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

Bearing in mind the effect that the present shortage is bound to have and is having on the quality of young people entering engineering and science courses, and concerns expressed by the CBI and the headmasters' conference, among others, will my hon. Friend do all that he can to encourage the entry and re-entry of people into this profession and not even rule out possible differential payments in grants and salaries?

Mr. Butcher

The question of flexibility is one that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science will consider in due course with all those who advise him. We must look very hard at the fact that 400,000 teachers are employed, but that there are 400,000 qualified teachers in what is referred to as the pool of inactive teachers—another unfortunate acronym, the PITS. It is that particular category of teachers currently outside the service that we must closely examine when considering incentives to return to the profession, particularly in the shortage subjects.

Mr. Straw

I offer our congratulations to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on his transfer.

Does he accept that his reply is one of desperate complacency that does not begin to match the scale of the problem? Applications for physics, mathematics and chemistry are down 10 per cent. this year, and half the teachers of mathematics and physics were not qualified at degree level to teach those subjects.

Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that when his hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (Mr. Jackson), in his capacity as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, stated in a recent document that a major argument is brewing up about whether we should be aiming to produce more teachers, in order to maintain staff-student ratios at their existing high point, the argument to which he was drawing attention is one inside the Department of Education and Science and with the Treasury, as to whether teacher shortages can be solved by recruiting more teachers or by making classes larger. On the side of which argument is the Secretary of State?

Mr. Butcher

I may tell the hon. Member that we treat this question very seriously and it is a matter of concern, for the reasons which my hon. Friends have already adduced. As to recruitment and entry into the profession, the hon. Gentleman is correct in saying that in terms of training applications, there was a 10 per cent. reduction in mathematics applicants and a 12 per cent. reduction in physics applicants. By the same token, recruitment into the profession last year was up by 33 per cent. in mathematics and by 49 per cent. in physics. Nevertheless, it is the question of applications that we must address.

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we shall be bringing forward programmes on in-service training. I believe that the package of measures that we have in place will tackle the short-term difficulties, but we have a common cause in tackling the medium-term problem.