HC Deb 04 July 1994 vol 246 cc74-5W
Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will provide figures on admissions to courses of initial teacher education starting in autumn 1994, broken down by gender for primary and secondary schools.

Mr. Robin Squire

Information on these courses will not be available to the Department until next year.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what are the admission targets for initial teacher education for 1994, 1995 and 1996, for school based and non-school based training; and what difficulties are expected in meeting the targets.

Mr. Robin Squire

The following recruitment targets for higher education institutions were notified to the Higher Education Funding Council for England—HEFCE—in January 1993.

1994–95 1995–96 1996–97
Primary 12,930 12,115 10,855
Secondary 16,050 17,000 17,935
TOTAL 28,980 29,115 28,790

In addition, some 460 places are expected to be provided on approved courses of school-centred ITT—SCITT—in 1994–95. The targets are based on the best available information about the needs of the system and are reviewed annually.

Targets for 1995–96 and later years will be reviewed and notified to the Teacher Training Agency—TTA—in the autumn, subject to the passage of the Education Bill. It will be for the TTA to determine the allocation of places, both on SCITT courses and those in higher education institutions.