HC Deb 14 April 1993 vol 222 cc542-3W
Mrs. Ann Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will publish the data from the Secondary School Staffing Survey 1992 showing teachers' pay scales and allowances by length of teaching experience; what assessment his Department has made of the data in respect of updating the conclusions in paragraph 28 of the Statistical Bulletin No. 18/91, in respect of the difference in promotion rates of men and women; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Boswell

The table shows the distribution of full-time secondary school teachers by pay scale and allowance, length of teaching experience and sex. It is derived from the 1992 secondary school staffing survey which covered a representative sample of teachers in maintained secondary schools in England.

The proportion of male full-time secondary teachers paid as heads, deputies or higher allowance holders—D or E—is 37 per cent., compared with 16 per cent. of women. The proportion of men in these posts is therefore 2.3 times greater than the proportion of women; compared with a ratio of 2.6 in 1988. After standardising by length of teaching experience, the ratio becomes 1.9, compared with a standardised ratio of 2.0 in 1988. Excluding those teachers who have taken a career break, by restricting the analysis to those whose age minus their years of teaching experience comes to less than 25, the standardised ratio becomes 1.7, the same as in 1988.

Decisions on promotion to head, deputy head and higher allowance posts are taken by local education authorities and, under LMS, by the governing bodies of schools with delegated budgets. The Department's guides for school governors stress the importance of equal opportunities issues.

The most recent figures for new promotions to head and deputy head show that 35 per cent. of such promotees in the secondary sector were women; since women hold 28 per cent. of existing head and deputy head posts—reflecting previous promotions, going back over several years—the outlook for the future of women in the profession looks more encouraging.

Pay scale
Head teacher Deputy head teacher Pay scale Standard scale with allowance Standard scale, no allowance Other scales2 Total
E D C B A
All men (thousands) 3.5 6.2 6.5 17.3 10.6 18.9 9.0 18.8 0.4 91.1
Women:
Less than 1 year 12 4
1 year 1 2 8 33 3
2 years 1 1 5 7 14 4
3 years 1 2 4 5 9 3
4 years 1 2 3 4 4 12 3
5 years 2 1 2 4 5 3 5 3
6 to 10 years 4 4 12 16 18 19 16 11 16
11 to 15 years 6 12 21 24 30 24 26 20 12 23
16 or more years 92 85 73 64 48 47 35 26 5 41
TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
All women (thousands) 0.7 3.0 2.1 7.6 8.1 19.0 14.0 29.4 0.7 84.7
All teachers (thousands) 4.2 9.1 8.5 24.9 18.6 37.9 23.0 48.3 1.2 175.8
1 Including full and part-time service.
2 Includes scales for unqualified teachers.
—Less than 0.5.