HC Deb 26 May 1994 vol 244 cc313-4W
Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his answer of 19 May,Official Report, column 547, if he will give (a) the provisional full-time equivalent teacher numbers for (i) nursery and primary schools and (ii) secondary schools as at January 1994 and (b) the provisional pupil numbers in (i) nursery and primary schools and (ii) secondary schools as at January 1994 giving the figures both for local education authorities and grant-maintained schools.

Mr. Robin Squire

The information is as follows:

Parental ballots on grant maintained status
Number of schools balloting Number of Yes ballots Total percentage of parents voting Yes Total percentage of parents voting No
October 1993 16 13 67 33
November 1993 36 22 59 41
December 1993 40 28 56 44
January 1994 18 16 68 32
February 1994 30 16 48 52
March 1994 39 23 52 48
April 1994 26 12 49 51

Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to offer financial assistance to those people or organisations who wish to promote new grant-maintained schools under section 49 of the Education Act 1993.

Mr. Robin Squire

The Department has no plans to offer financial assistance to promoters of new grant-maintained schools proposed under section 49 of the Education Act 1993.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people requested further information, in response to his Departments advertising campaign for grant-maintained status during January and February, by(a) phoning the number given on the coupon in the advertisements and (b) returning the coupon.

Mr. Robin Squire

The Departments GM publications centre received 3,913 requests for information between Janaury and the end of April. Of these, 996 calls to the freephone number are known to be attributable to the advertisements, as are the 1,177 coupons returned.

An estimated breakdown between primary and secondary of the

provisional full-time equivalent numbers of teachers employed in the

maintained sector, including self-governing (GM) schools.

England—January 1994
Thousands
Nursery and primary 197.6
Secondary 193.3
TOTAL 390.9

Projected full-time equivalent numbers of pupils in maintained schools, including self-governing (GM) schools. England—January 1994
Thousands
Nursery and primary 4,120.7
Secondary 2,932.3
TOTAL 7,053.0