§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment her Department has made of the value to teachers(a) in further education colleges and (b) in schools with sixth forms of this year's pay proposals. [52563]
§ Mr. TimmsSixth form teachers in schools have received a pay award of 3.5 per cent. with effect from 1 April, together with a new allowance of £33 in respect of the cost of the fee payable to the General Teaching Councils for England or Wales. Teachers below the maximum of the main pay scale may also receive assimilation increases when the scale is shortened from nine to six points on 1 September. The 2002–03 pay negotiations between the Association of Colleges and representative further education unions started on 16 April and are currently ongoing. I am unable to make an assessment of the value to further education teachers and lecturers at this time.
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on teacher morale in(a) further education colleges and (b) schools with sixth forms. [52567]
§ Mr. TimmsWe are taking action together with the School Teachers' Review Body and the school teacher employers and unions to address the problem of teacher workload; and pay for a good experienced classroom teacher who has passed the performance threshold has increased by nearly 30 per cent. since 1997. We take very seriously the need to raise the status and morale of the teaching profession. The assessment of further education staff morale is a matter for further education colleges, as independent employers, to address in consultation with the relevant unions, just as the terms and conditions for staff are a matter for colleges to determine in discussion with relevant unions. We acknowledge that colleges need help to ensure that they have the right arrangements to recruit, reward and retain excellent teachers. Over the period 2001–04, significant extra resources amounting to an additional £311 million have been made available to the further education sector to reward high calibre staff through our Teaching Pay Initiative.
640W
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate her Department has made of the average number of hours per week worked by teachers in(a) further education colleges and (b) schools with sixth forms over the last 12 months. [52568]
§ John HealeyInformation about hours worked is collected for the School Teachers Review Body by the Office for Manpower Economics. The latest information relates to March 2000. It showed average weekly hours as follows:
Average weekly hours Head teachers 60.8 Deputy head teachers 58.6 Heads of department 52.9 Other teachers 51.3 These figures are based on diaries kept by teachers in a survey undertaken during a typical term-time week. Averages have not been estimated over 12 months, i.e. including school holidays.
Comparable information is not available for teachers in further education.
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of average class sizes in(a) further education colleges and (b) schools with sixth forms. [52569]
§ John HealeyIn January 2001 in maintained secondary schools the average class sizes for National Curriculum Year Groups 12 and 13, for classes taught by one teacher, were 11.9 and 9.4 respectively.
Information on class sizes in FE colleges is not available.
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on(a) pay scales for teachers and (b) the allocation of funds per A-level student in (i) further education colleges and (ii) secondary schools with sixth forms. [52571]
§ Mr. TimmsPay scales for schools teachers have increased by 3.5 per cent. with effect from 1 April, and a new allowance of £33 created in respect of the cost of the fee payable to the General Teaching Councils for England or Wales. The main pay scale now has nine points from £16,599 to £25,713. This will reduce to six points from £17,595 to £25,713 with effect from 1 September. The upper pay scale for post-threshold teachers has five points from £27,861 to £32,217. The pay spine for advanced skills teachers runs from £28,917 to £46,131. The pay spine for the leadership group runs from £30,531 to £85,671. Further education sector colleges are run by independent corporations established under the Further Education and Higher Education Act 1992 and there is no national pay structure in place. Colleges are free to establish pay scales that meet their needs and can be agreed with their staff. We continue to encourage employers and unions to work together to ensure that further education staff receive reasonable pay given the substantial extra funding that has been made available for the further education sector.
The figures for school and college funding have not been calculated on the same basis and cannot therefore be used to make comparisons. The further education unit 641W funding figure includes total public funding allocated for further education, while the schools' figure does not. It is based only on delegated funds and excludes other funding the school receives centrally from LEAs which impacts on post-16 students. The latest estimate of the average delegated funding per sixth form student in schools per year in England for 2001–02 is £3,330. The total funding per full-time equivalent student in further education sector colleges per year in England for 2001–02 is estimated to be £3,660.