§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the current ratio of(a) pupils to teachers and (b) pupils to other education staff in (i) the United Kingdom and (ii) other major competitor countries. [18067]
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe readily available information on pupil-teacher ratios is shown in the table. Information on non-teaching staff is not held centrally.
Pupil teacher ratios, public and private, 1991 Primary1 Secondary1 Australia 18.5 18.6 Austria 10.8 10.0 Belgium 29.7 7.7 Denmark 11.1 10.7 Finland 18.8 n/a France 22.8 14.0 Germany 20.5 16.5 Ireland 26.9 17.2 Japan 20.3 17.3 Netherlands 19.7 15.9 Norway 10.8 8.9 Portugal 13.4 11.6 Spain 22.0 16.9 Sweden 10.4 10.7 Turkey 30.4 23.9 United Kingdom3 21.5 14.7 United States 15.2 15.5 Notes: 1Primary and secondary levels are defined in terms of the international classification for education. Thus the secondary level figures for the UK include pupils and teachers in the further education sector as well as secondary schools. 2Excludes preprimary pupils, but includes their teachers. 3The figures used to calculate the PTR's for both primary and secondary include maintained special education pupils, but exclude special education teachers. Source: 3Education at a Glance, OECD, December 1993.