§ Mr. Stan Crowtherasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what contribution the special arrangements for retraining teachers in shortage subjects have made to the supply of teachers of those subjects.
§ Mr. Oakes:The Government's special scheme includes two overlapping elements: retraining courses for qualified teachers; and special awards for mature people with relevant knowledge training or retraining to teach certain shortage subjects. There were just over 900 people training or retraining under the scheme in 1977–78, and we now know that about 865 of these completed courses this summer. Approximately 70 were already employed as teachers by local education authorities. Of the remaining 795, 415 responded to a recent questionnaire sent to those training or retraining on special awards; 337 of these 415 are teaching the shortage subjects, and a further 29 have other teaching posts. This suggests that, very approximately, an additional 715 teachers are teaching the shortage subjects as a result of the Government's special scheme.