§ Mr. Crouchasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he has as to how many physics graduates were admitted to postgraduate certificate of education courses in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985; how many went into teaching in each of those years; and what these numbers represent as fractions of the total number of teachers in England and Wales.
§ Mr. Chris PattenThe number of graduates admitted to postgraduate certificate in education courses in physics in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, amd 1985 were 443, 489, 428, 408 and 255 respectively. In recent years some 80 per cent. of students who entered PGCE courses of all kinds 219W completed their training successfully and entered teaching in the maintained sector; there is some evidence that wastage from physics courses may be higher than average.
Information on the total number of physics teachers in secondary schools is available only from the staffing surveys carried out in 1984 in England and Wales when an estimated 13,300 full-time teachers taught physics as a separate subject. The graduate entrants to PGCE quoted above for 1981 to 1985 represented 3 per cent., 4 per cent., 3 per cent., 3 per cent., and 2 per cent. respectively of this total.