HC Deb 08 March 1988 vol 129 c124W
Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what action is being taken to ensure that there are adequate numbers of teachers trained for languages other than French.

Mrs. Rumbold

Education support grants are being made available from 1988–89 to help local education authorities to plan and implement diversification of modern language provision. We are holding a secondary teacher staffing this month—a year early—to establish up-to-date information on existing stocks of teachers, including those qualified to teach languages other than French. We are in the process of estimating likely demand for teachers for the national curriculum including modern languages. We monitor applications for initial teacher training closely. We are already featuring the need for modern language teachers in our teacher recruitment publicity.