§ Mr. FaberTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many new entrants into teacher training have been recorded since the launch of the publicity campaign, No-one Forgets a Good Teacher; and what proportion of those new entrants had expressed an interest in the profession prior to the launch. [30986]
200W
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe response to the Teacher Training Agency's (TTA) advertising campaign has been very positive. Between October 1997 and January 1998 the TTA's Teaching Information Line received 25,418 inquiries, a 76 per cent. increase above the same period in the previous year. And in January 1998 there were on average 53,000 hits per week to the TTA's website, compared to around 13,500 hits per week in September 1997. We will not know how many new entrants have entered teacher training until the autumn, which will be the first intake following the publicity campaign and we have no information on the proportion of such entrants who may have expressed an interest in teaching prior to the launch of the campaign.