§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish a table showing teacher84W vacancies by region in January 1989, distinguishing between vacancies in (a) nursery and primary schools and (b) secondary schools.
§ Mr. ButcherFull information on the number of teacher vacancies in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England in January 1989 is not yet available. Figures for those regions where the data are complete are as follows:
Nursery and primary schools Secondary schools North 92 62 Yorkshire and Humberside 200 155 North West 307 219 East Midlands 145 145 West Midlands 222 262 East Anglia 47 59 Greater London n/y/a n/y/a Other South East 617 542 South West 181 161 n/y/a=Not yet available.
§ Ms. ArmstrongTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) how many teachers have resigned during the academic year 1988–89;
(2) what steps he takes to monitor the number of resignations of teachers.
§ Mr. ButcherInformation on the number of teachers resigning during the academic year 1988–89 is not yet available.
Detailed annual returns of teachers in service are made by local education authorities at 31 March, together with information on those entering and leaving service during the previous year. The returns from some authorities are subject to considerable delay, and the most recent period for which complete data are available is the year ending March 1987. The number of teachers leaving full-time service in the maintained nursery, primary and secondary sector in England in that year was 28,960, of which 2,840 were aged 60 or over.
Following a recent report by the management consultants Logica, a number of proposals are being pursued to improve the flow of teacher information to the Department. These include measures to improve the timeliness of the annual returns and the completeness of termly appointment and withdrawal notifications.