§ Mr. Adam Butlerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many students in teacher training colleges are at present without firm teaching posts for the 1976–77 academic year; what is his estimate of the numbers likely still to be unplaced at the start of that year; and what is his forecast for the 1977–78 year.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonInformation to answer the first part of the Question is not collected by my Department. Of some 41,000 teachers who qualified in 1975, 30,000 obtained full-time posts in maintained schools in England and Wales by January 1976. This left a balance of about 11,000 compared with one of up 229W to 8,000 in recent years. However, uncertainty about trends in wastage from and re-entry to the profession make it impossible to give reliable estimates of the number of teachers likely to be unable to find teaching posts this September and in subsequent years. Even in the years of teacher shortage, some 20 per cent. of those who successfully completed their courses in the summer would commonly not have taken up teaching posts in the maintained sector by the following September.