§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the oral answer of the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Syms), of 25 June 2003,Official Report, column 1047, how many of the additional 25,000 teachers have qualified teacher status; what status the remaining teachers have; and what their distribution is by (a) primary and (b) secondary sectors. [123152]
§ Mr. Miliband[holding answer 3 July 2003]: The number of regular teachers in the maintained sector in England increased by 24,800 between January 1997 and January 2003 (provisional). The number of teachers with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) rose by 12,500. The number of teachers with professional qualifications obtained in countries outside the European Economic Area and instructors with special qualifications or experience of particular skills or subjects rose by 8,500. The remaining 3,800 of the increase is comprised of mature career-changers working towards QTS while working as teachers on employment-based training routes like the graduate teacher programme. These routes, which were first established in 1998, already provide over 10 per cent. of all newly-qualified teachers. Since autumn 2000, the earliest date for which these data are available, over 5,000 teachers on employment-based training programmes have been awarded QTS. Almost 900 of those have gamed QTS since January 2003.
Data about teachers by phase of employment for January 2003 are not yet available in the form requested. Of the 24,800 increase 5,800 were in the maintained nursery and primary phase, 17,600 were in the maintained secondary phase and. 1,400 were in maintained special schools, pupil referral units or education elsewhere.