HC Deb 21 July 1993 vol 229 cc229-30W
Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers are teaching subjects they have no qualifications to teach; and what progress has been made and measures taken to reduce the numbers.

Mr. Robin Squire

The latest information is provided by the 1992 secondary school staffing survey. The table shows the percentage of full-time secondary teachers in England who gave some tuition in a subject in which they held no post-A level qualification, and the percentage of tuition this represented. About half of this tuition was by teachers with five or more years' experience of teaching the subject.

Subject Percentage of teachers without a qualification Tuition by these teachers as a percentage of all tuition in subject
Mathematics 22 10
Biology 14 11
Chemistry 5 3
Physics 6 4
General Science 16 9
CDT 50 34
English 27 14
French 18 9
German 24 13
Other Languages 34 19
History 28 11
Geography 29 10
Music 19 5
Art 24 7
Subject Percentage of teachers without a qualification Tuition by these teachers as a percentage of all tuition in subject
Physical Education 32 9
Religious Education 54 25

Compared with the results of the 1988 secondary school staffing survey, these figures show a slight improvement.

The Department has funded a range of measures which have enhanced the skills of existing teachers and improved the supply of secondary subject specialists. These include £170 million currently being spent on in-service training, and specific support for upgrading non-specialist teachers of physics, chemistry and French. There has been a 44 per cent. increase in recruitment to secondary teacher training since 1990.