asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps have been taken during 1978 to promote the employment or further training of unemployed teachers, especially those who have not yet held a teaching post.

The Government's expenditure plans have provided for local authorities to employ 11,300 additional teachers, over and above those needed to maintain previous pupil-teacher ratios, in 1978–79. Courses to retrain qualified teachers to teach certain shortage subjects in secondary schools will continue in 1978–79: there are some 30 of these courses and recruitment to them includes newly qualified teachers who have been unable to obtain teaching posts.