HC Deb 23 March 1978 vol 946 c664W
Mr. Joseph Dean

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are the pupil-teacher ratios for all classes of pupils in the six largest metropolitan districts.

Miss Margaret Jackson

The latest available information is for January 1977. The pupil-teacher ratios for the six metropolitan districts which are largest in terms of total population are given below:

Birmingham 19.8
Bradford 19.0
Leeds 20.8
Liverpool 19.2
Manchester 19.1
Sheffield 19.4

Note: An authority's pupil-teacher ratio is the ratio of all the pupils in its maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools to all the teachers employed by it: since some teachers divide their service between different types of school and some are out of schools for extended periods—for example, on in-service training courses—the pupil-teacher ratio does not measure effective staffing standards in schools.