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Teachers

Volume 410: debated on Friday 19 September 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the relationship between SATS scores and the results of teacher assessment at Key Stage Two. [129030]

[holding answer 11 September 2003]: Testing of all pupils at the end of each key stage of education provides objective evidence, against a national standard, of what children have learned in the core subjects. Teacher assessment: is an important part of the overall statutory assessment framework and covers the full range and scope of the programmes of study, taking into account evidence of achievement in a range of contexts, including that gained through discussion and observation.

The evidence from both types of assessment, together provides, valuable information to support the future learning of each pupil.

The results from teacher assessment and tests are broadly consistent, but they are derived from different sources of evidence of a pupil's attainment.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers he estimates will lose their jobs in (a) the Chesham and Amersham constituency and (b) Buckinghamshire as a result of the financial problems encountered by schools in England in the next school year; and how many (i) teaching and (ii) other staff posts he estimates will remain unfilled for the same reason. [129890]

My right hon. Friend has made no such estimate. Provisional statistics on teacher and support staff numbers and teacher vacancies at January 2003 were published in April in Statistical First Release 10/2003. Statistics released on 9 September provided regional and LEA level breakdowns of these figures. Provisional national figures for January 2004 are due to be published next April. As I made clear in my reply to the hon. Member of 8 September 2003, Official Report, column 112w, the broad assessment of changes in teaching staff numbers made by my Department in liaison with local education authorities (LEAs) in May this year did not provide a definitive picture.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the subjects which have missed targets for teacher training recruitment in the last year for which figures are available. [127284]

My Department has moved from a system which obliges teacher training providers to aim for a particular intake target to one that incentivises them to recruit as many good candidates as they can in the areas where new teachers are needed most. That is why 4,000 more conventional teacher training places and over 5,000 more employment-based training places will be funded in 2003/04 than were being funded in 1996/97. The table shows the number of conventional teacher training places funded in 2002/03 by subject and phase; the number of entrants who took up these places; and the number of recruits to employment-based teacher training in that year. Numbers of funded employment-based training places are not specified in advance by subject or phase.

2002/03Initial teacher training placesEntrants to initial teacher trainingEntrants to employment based teacher training
Primary14,00014,4511,659
Secondary
Mathematics1,9401,673382
English and drama2,3502,479649
Science2,8502,701506
Modern Foreign Languages2,0501,732221
Technology12,5002,404653
History95098579
Geography1,10094659
Physical Education1,2001,325138
Art85088582
Music70059668
Religious Education70057662
Citizenship20018515

2002/03

Initial teacher training places

Entrants to initial teacher training

Entrants to employment based teacher training

Other300174100
Secondary Reserve100
Total secondary17,79016.6613,014
Overall Total31,79031,1124,673
Fast Trackn/a117n/a
Total (including Fast Track)31,79031,2294,673

1 Technology includes design and technology, business studies and information technology

Source:

TTA