§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teaching assistants there were in schools in the Huntingdon constituency in(a) each of the last seven years arid (b) on the latest date for which figures were available. [170840]
§ Mr. MilibandThe following table gives the full-time equivalent number of teaching assistants employed in maintained schools in Huntingdon constituency in each January between 1997 and 2003, the latest year for which data are available.
1754W
Number 1997 210 1998 240 1999 260 2000 260 2001 320 2002 340 2003 370 Source: Annual School Census.
§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in schools in the Huntingdon constituency on the latest date for which figures are available; and what steps he has taken to reduce them. [170841]
§ Mr. MilibandInformation on teacher vacancies is not available by constituency as it is collected at local education authority level. In January 2003, the latest information available, there were 32 full-time teacher vacancies in Cambridgeshire local education authority.
Like other areas, since 1997 Cambridgeshire has benefited from the initiatives that the Government has put in place to recruit and retain teachers and to increase the number of staff supporting them in schools. Since 1997, the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained schools in the former Cambridgeshire LEA area has risen by 450 from 5,400 to 5,850 in 2003. Over the same period, the number of full-time equivalent school support staff in the area has grown by 1,080 from 2,470 to 3,550 in 2003.