Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many teachers qualified to teach mathematics are currently in employment; and how many are actually teaching mathematics.
§ Dr. BoysonThe Department does not regularly collect comprehensive information on teachers' qualifications. From the 1977 secondary school staffing survey it is estimated that there were then 47,100 full-time teachers in maintained secondary schools in England and Wales who had studied mathematics as part of their training, of whom 21,200 had mathematics as the main subject of their highest qualification. 62 per cent. of the former and 93 per cent. of the latter were teaching mathematics. The Department has no comparable information for other types of school or for a more recent date; and no information about the numbers of qualified teachers trained in mathematics who are not in teaching employment.