§ 15. Mrs. Gillian ShephardTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to encourage the recruitment of former teachers back to the classroom.
§ Mrs. RumboldWe are already very successful in recruiting former teachers: over 50 per cent. of new 15W appointments in the four years up to March 1987 were taken up by former teachers. But we are increasing our efforts and have recently announced a new £2 million education support grant programme to support measures to support returners. I look to authorities to come up with imaginative schemes aimed at women in particular, which might include child care facilities and more flexible employment arrangements, such as part-time working and job sharing.
§ 26. Mr. IrvineTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are the latest figures he has available as regards science and mathematics graduates going into teaching; and what are the corresponding figures for five years ago.
§ Mr. ButcherIn the year ending March 1986 (the latest for which figures are available) the numbers of new entrants to teaching in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England with degrees (including B Eds) in science and mathematics were 1,710 and 860 respectively. The corresponding figures for the year ending March 1981 were 2,040 and 800.
§ 37. Mr. HagueTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress he is making in meeting the problem of potential teacher shortages in certain subject areas.
§ Mr. ButcherSince our action programme was launched nearly three years ago the decline in recruitment to teaching in the shortage subjects which we witnessed up to 1986 has been reversed. We shall continue and reinforce our action programme to ensure that we have the well-qualified teachers that we shall need in our schools in the 1990s.