RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TEACHERS

HL Deb 26 July 1990 vol 521 cc1789-90WA

The Lord Bishop of Guildford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What, according to the latest available statistics, is the ratio of qualified religious education teachers to pupils in:

1. (a) Voluntary aided secondary schools; and
2. (b) County maintained secondary schools.

Baroness Blatch

Comparable data for the four separate regions of the United Kingdom are not available. In England and Wales, teachers with religious education as either the main or a subsiduary subject of a post A-level qualification are deemed to be qualified in RE. In Scotland, all teachers are required to have a postgraduate teaching qualification in the subject(s) they wish to teach.

Figures for England, Wales and Scotland are given in the table. Data for Northern Ireland are not available.

Ratios of qualified Religious Education teachers to pupils
	Voluntary aided	County 1	Other maintained 2
England3	1:102	1:232	1:222
Wales4	1:171	1:223	1:161
Scotian5	6—	1:492	6—

Sources: Secondary Schools Staffing Survey (England) 1988.

Secondary Schools Staffing Survey (Wales) 1989—teacher numbers.

Form STATS1 (Wales) 1989—pupil numbers.

1988 Scottish School Census.

¹ In Scotland, local education authority schools.

² Including voluntary controlled and special agreement schools.

³ Based on the full-time equivalents (FTEs) of full- and part-time teachers.

⁴ Based on full-time teachers only.

⁵ Based on the full-time equivalents (FTEs) of full- and part-time teachers.

⁶ Not applicable.