HC Deb 22 June 1984 vol 62 c289W
Mr. Arnold

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he takes to encourage unemployed trained teachers to move to parts of the United Kingdom where there are shortages of teaching staffs.

Mr. Dunn

None. It is for local education authorities, as the employers of teachers, to take such steps as they consider necessary to attract teachers in their areas so as to make good any shortages. Teachers seeking work in other parts of the country may make use of professional and executive recruitment and other facilities provided by the public employment service.

Mr. Arnold

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will estimate, for each principal teaching subject in secondary education, whether the supply of trained teachers exceeds or is less than the demand.

Mr. Dunn

There are too many unknown factors to give a precise estimate of the relationship of supply demand. Indicators which give a measure of the relative strength of demand are the extent of unemployment amongst newly trained specialist teachers—obtained from the annual surveys conducted by the Department and by the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers—and the number of vacancies in each secondary school subject reported by local education authorities in the Department's annual survey. On these indicators, demand is currently higher than average in mathematics and science, craft, design and technology, business studies and music, and lower than average in English, foreign languages, religious education, geography, history and art; for home economics and physical education the evidence is mixed.