asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he is satisfied that the normal rate of staff wastage at the three general colleges of education will be sufficient during the next five years to cope with the decline in the number of academic staff required as a consequence of reduced student numbers.

The number of teaching staff at colleges of education is dependent not upon student intakes, which are under consideration at present, but upon the overall number of training places, including places for in-service training. The number of training places that will be required in the long term at the three colleges of education has not yet been determined. In planning for the future, one of the objectives will be to avoid redundancies in teaching staff so far as is possible.

						Total cost to public funds	Number of schools	Average cost per school
						£		£
1971–72	…	…	…	…	…	2,053,650	21	97,793
1972–73	…	…	…	…	…	2,212,999	21	105,381
1973–74	…	…	…	…	…	2,664,926	21	126,901
1974–75	…	…	…	…	…	3,621,474	22	164,612
1975–76	…	…	…	…	…	5,014,417	22	227,928

The figures are for recurrent expenditure, not including capital, and also exclude the cost of such items as administration, school transport, milk and meals.

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what has been

						Total cost to public funds	Number of schools	Average cost per school
						£		£
1971–72	…	…	…	…	…	5,763,992	60	96,067
1972–73	…	…	…	…	…	6,789,625	60	113,160
1973–74	…	…	…	…	…	7,546,210	59	127,902
1974–75	…	…	…	…	…	9,364,226	59	158,716
1975–76	…	…	…	…	…	15,271,493	57	267,921

These figures are for recurrent expenditure, not including capital, and also exclude the cost of such items as administration, school transport, milk and meals.