§ 25. Mr. EffordTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent steps he has taken to improve teacher recruitment and retention. [157933]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisOur recruitment and retention measures have already ensured that there are more teachers than for a decade and the number of trainee teachers has risen for the first time in eight years.
The teachers' pay arrangements for 2001–02, and the £200 million teacher recruitment package announced by my right hon. Friend on 12 March will help build on this success. We are introducing a welcome back bonus for people returning to teaching; a teacher retention and recruitment fund to support schools in areas where there are difficulties; extension of £4,000 golden hellos for newly-qualified teachers of shortage subjects to English; funding for 570 more places in a full year on the graduate teacher programme; and 500 more places on refresher courses for those returning to teaching, which include training grants of up to £150 a week and help towards child care costs. My right hon. Friend has also published a Green Paper, "Schools: building on success", containing proposals that will further help recruit and retain teachers, including paying off, over time, the student loans of new teachers who commit themselves to a career in the maintained sector.
§ Mr. JoyceTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many teaching vacancies in(a) schools and (b) colleges in England and Wales were filled during the financial year 1999–2000. [155624]
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§ Ms Estelle Morris[holding answer 27 March 2001]: The number of teachers recruited to a full-time post (new entrants and teachers moving to jobs from other schools/colleges) in England in financial years 1997–1998 and 1998–1999 (the latest year for which data are available), were as follows:
1997–98 1998–991 Maintained schools sector 52,100 (14.4%) 50,200 (14.0%) FE colleges 3,700 (7.5%) 4.100 (9.1%) 1 Provisional The figures in brackets are recruits as a percentage of the total number of teachers in post at the beginning of the financial year.
There was a fall in the number of teachers leaving the maintained school sector in England, 27,570 (6.6 per cent.) in 1998–99 compared with 34,250 (8.2 per cent.) in 1997–98, following the 1997 reform of the Teachers Pension Scheme.
The full-time equivalent (FTE) number of regular teachers (excluding short-term supply) in the maintained schools sector in England at January 2001 was 410,280, an increase of 12,600 since January 1998:
January FTE1 1998 397,700 1999 401,200 2000 404.600 2001 410,280 1 Rounded There was a growth of 2,300 in the number of people recruited to train as teachers between 1999–2000 and 2000–01, the first such increase since 1992–93.
From April 2001 new graduate recruits can expect to earn £17,000 a year (up 6 per cent. from the previous year) and starting salaries in Inner London will rise to £20,000 (up 9 per cent. from the previous year).
Teacher information for Wales is the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales.