Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he has as to the scale of proposed changes in the level of the teaching force planned for the next academic year.
§ Dr. BoysonIn January 1982 local education authorities in England employed 420,000 schoolteachers. The expenditure plans which the Government published last March (Cmnd. 8494) assumed that in January 1983 the corresponding figure would be 405,000. I have no firm information about the intentions of the local authority employers, but if they continue to reduce teacher numbers at a rate similar to that of the last two years, the actual number of teachers employed in England for the next academic year will be around 410,000.