§ Mr. Bishopasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give the number of women teachers trained each year for the past 10 years and the number leaving teaching in the same period; and what action he is taking to encourage teachers to remain in or return to the profession.
§ Mr. CroslandThe following table gives the revelant information for the last two available years. Figures for earlier years have been published in "Statistics of Education". Some of the available statistics do not extend earlier than 1958–59.
Apart from the loss of women teachers through normal retirement, the current high wastage is mainly explained by young women leaving the schools upon marriage or to start a family. I am encouraging these teachers to return to teaching as soon as their family responsibilities allow them to do so, by annual Press campaigns and other publicity and by such measures as increasing the opportunities for part-time service and facilitating the provision of nursery schools and classes for their young children.
286W
1962–63 1965–64 Academic years Women students successfully completing initial courses of training* 11,192 12,440 Years ending 31st March Entry and wastage of women trained graduates and qualified non-graduates in maintained primary and secondary schools† (a) Entrants 4,029‡ 11,827 (b) Re-entrants§ 6,665 6,069 (c) Transfers from other grant-aided schools and establishments 309 259 (d) Total entry 11,003 18,155 (e) Wastage|| 15,912 16,169 (f) Net increase (+) or decrease (-) in numbers (=(d)-(e)) -4,909 +1,986 Notes * Students completing their training in the Summer term of a given academic year normally appear as "entrants" for the subsequent year ending 31st March. † Including a small number of untrained non-graduates. ‡ In 1962–63 the number of women entrants was abnormally low because of the extension in 1960 of the training course at the colleges of education from two to three years, which reduced the total output of trained women teachers in the academic year 1961–62 to 4,086. § i.e., teachers returning to maintained schools after a break in service extending over one or more previous annual counts. || Including transfers to other grant-aided schools and establishments (844 in 1963–64).