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Schools: Teachers

Volume 699: debated on Friday 22 February 2008

asked Her Majesty's Government:

With respect to each year from 1998 to the present, how many graduates began secondary school teaching careers with degree qualifications in (a) English; (b) mathematics; (c) foreign languages; (d) ICT; and (e) physics.[HL1971]

Complete information relating to the degree qualification of graduates who began secondary school teaching careers is not available centrally.

The table below shows the number of final year postgraduate mainstream initial teacher training (ITT) trainees who gained qualified teachers status (QTS) and entered a teaching post in the maintained sector within six months of gaining their QTS, broken down by the subject of their ITT training and their undergraduate degree.

Trainees entering maintained schools

Subject of ITT training

Number of postgraduate trainees with an undergraduate degree qualification in the subject of their ITT course

1998-99

1999-00

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

English

770

740

850

930

1,060

1,060

1,090

1,060

Mathematics

310

370

350

380

620

850

870

860

Science

850

950

1,080

1,250

1,170

1,420

1,360

1,520

Information and communications technology

30

50

80

100

250

310

330

370

Modern languages

450

520

580

570

570

630

420

530

All secondary subjects

4,410

4,740

4,720

5,280

6,760

7,880

7,970

8,050

Source: TDA's Performance Profiles

Notes

(1) Mainstream includes universities and other higher education institutions, SCITT and OU, but excludes employment-based routes.

(2) The destination of trainees through employment-based ITT courses is not currently collected.

(3) Performance profiles data are collected at the end of a trainee’s first year, therefore 2006-07 data are collected in autumn 2007 and will be published in July 2008.

(4) Trainees who enter teaching posts in independent schools or schools where the sector is unknown are not included in the table above.

(5) The destination of some final year trainees remains unknown, therefore there are potentially more NQTs entering teaching posts within six months of gaining QTS year on year.

(6) There are additional postgraduate trainees on ITT courses where the first degree is unknown, so there are potentially more graduates gaining/entering teaching posts.

(7) The degree of undergraduate trainees, should they hold one, is not collected through the performance profiles data.

(8) The table above only covers those who hold a first degree in the subject of their ITT training course; it does not cover those who have a first degree in the subject but are entering an ITT course which is not in this subject.

(9) Those counted as having a degree qualification in the subject of their ITT course include both direct and related matches between degree and ITT subject. A direct match to the subject of ITT would be holding a degree in the subject of training, whereas a related match would be a degree with elements relating to the subject of ITT. For example within science a degree classified as a direct match would include degrees in subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics and a degree classified as a related match would include degrees in subjects such as medicine and dentistry.

(10) The method of classifying degree subjects changed as a result of the introduction of the JACS coding structure in 2002-03. Data collected prior to this date under the HESA coding system cannot be directly compared using the direct match alone. Therefore figures for both a direct match and a related match have been included.

(11) The breakdown of science trainees by specialism is not available.

(12) Trainees taking the assessment only are not included in “All secondary subjects” in the table above.

(13) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. * represents values which round to under 10.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

With respect to each year from 1998 to the present, how many secondary school teachers with degree qualifications in (a) English; (b) mathematics; (c) foreign languages; (d) ICT; and (e) physics left their teaching posts (1) within the first five years, (2) after five to 10 years; and (3) after 11 to 15 years.[HL1972]