§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what studies he has made into differences in the course drop-out rate for trainee teachers according to(a) whether they are on Bachelor or Postgraduate Certificate of Education courses, (b) their gender, (c) their ethnic origin and (d) whether or not they are disabled; and if he will make a statement. [98100]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe proportion of those who start initial teacher training courses who do not gain qualified teacher status is estimated to be 29 per cent. for undergraduate courses and 13 per cent. for postgraduate courses, based on those gaining qualified teacher status from October 1997 to September 1998.
Information on gender, ethnic origin and disabled status is not available.
The Initial Teacher Training performance profiles, published by the Teacher Training Agency in September 1999, show the percentage of final year trainees in 1997–98 who had gained qualified teacher status by 31 July 1998, split by postgraduate and undergraduate trainees. For primary initial teacher training 90 per cent. of final year undergraduates and 85 per cent. of final year postgraduates gained qualified teacher training. Figures for secondary initial teacher training are given for individual subjects. These figures do not take into account drop-out during earlier years of the course, which mainly applies to undergraduate trainees, or of those who gained qualified teacher status after 31 July 1998.