HC Deb 02 February 1979 vol 961 cc592-3W
Mr. John Page

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the present strength of Her Majesty's school inspectorate and what was the strength in 1974; how much of the workload of the inspectorate is concerned with independent schools in comparison with State schools; and what was the comparable proportion in 1974.

Miss Margaret Jackson

The number of Her Majesty's inspectors at 1 January 1974 and 1979 was 443 and 403, of whom about three-quarters were mainly concerned with schools. Her Majesty's inspectors continue to make routine and formal inspection visits to independent schools, although there has been a small reduction in these arising from the ending of the arrangements for recognition as efficient. Their short courses and publications are also available to teachers in the independent as well as the maintained sectors. As in 1974, some 175 inspectors have assignments which include the inspection of independent as well as maintained schools. In addition, 15 inspectors, compared with 18 in 1974, are assigned to a team responsible for specific inspections in connection with registered status.

Achieving grade C or better
Modern Number of entrants Number Percentage
language 1976 1977 1976 1977 1976 1977
French 146,687 148,739 87,461 90,670 59.6 61.0
German 42,253 44,514 24,865 26,153 58.9 58.8
Spanish 12,048 11,740 7,398 7,255 61.4 61.8
Italian 3,501 2,622 2,231 1,855 63.7 70.8
Russian 2,042 1,875 1,500 1,334 73.5 71.2
Other modern languages 5,695 5,210 4,217 3,560 74.1 68.3