HC Deb 21 December 1988 vol 144 cc279-80W
Mr. Nicholas Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in theOfficial Report the number of teachers employed in secondary schools in the maintained sector who teach (a) religious education and (b) mathematics, together with the total number of pupils currently on roll in those schools; and if he will make a statement about the numbers coming forward for qualification as such teachers.

Mrs. Rumbold

Estimates from the 1984 secondary school staffing survey show 21,200 teachers of religious education and 40,500 teachers of mathematics in maintained secondary schools in England. A further such survey was conducted in 1988, and the results of this are expected to be available shortly.

studying on (a) full-time and (b) part-time courses at (i) universities, (ii) adult education colleges and (iii) other institutions of higher education in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Mr. Jackson

The available information is shown in the following table:

In January 1984 there were 3,646,000 pupils on the rolls of maintained secondary schools in England, falling to 3,070,000 by January 1988.

The numbers of students commencing initial teacher training in secondary phase religious education and mathematics in England averaged 250 and 1,030 respectively for the three years 1986–88 (270 and 1,080 in England and Wales).