§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what initiatives he plans for each of the local education authorities in Wales individually, to enable them to obtain more (i) foreign language teachers and (ii) Welsh teachers.
§ Sir Wyn RobertsWe have introduced a series of measures designed to improve the supply of modern foreign language teachers and teachers of Welsh. These include:
- i. adding modern foreign languages and Welsh to the shortage subject Trainee Teacher Bursary Scheme for students entering eligible courses in the autumn of 1990. At the same time the value of the bursary was increased to £1,500;
- ii. making £134,000 available under the Grants for Education Support and Training programme (GEST) to support Articled Teacher schemes. Clwyd is the one Local Education Authority in Wales to apply for support and the school-based training scheme will aim to attract graduates in shortage areas identified by the authority which include modern foreign languages and Welsh;
- iii. approving, also under the GEST programme, local authority expenditure of some £228,000 in 1991–92 on recruitment measures which will seek to attract former teachers and mature entrants to teaching. Each scheme will seek to address local recruitment need including teachers of modern languages and Welsh where these are identified as shortage areas;
- iv. investing heavily in in-service training to increase the supply of Welsh language teachers. In 1990–91 we made available £1 million to help existing teachers of other subjects to gain the necessary expertise to teach Welsh as well. For 1991–92, £1.8 million is to be spent on such training. In addition students at initial teacher training institutions in Wales will have the opportunity to learn the language while they are training to become primary school teachers.