Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 July 2021 to Question 25092 on Teachers: arts, how many schools lack a qualified teacher in each subject.

Legislation does not specify that teachers must have a degree in a particular subject or discipline. The Teachers’ Standards specify the subject knowledge required for the award of qualified teacher status. All trainee teachers must meet these by the time they complete their training.

In November 2019, of 2,957 state-funded secondary schools in England, the most common subjects taught where no teachers in a school held relevant post A level qualification in the subject were: computing (293), Spanish (271) and media studies (225). The attached table provides further detail on all subjects.

These figures relate only to schools where the subjects were taught. For example, a school that does not teach engineering and does not have a teacher with a post A level qualification in engineering is excluded from figures. In addition, figures only include schools that supplied both curriculum and teacher qualification data. This differs to the methodology used in the answer to question 25092, which included all schools, regardless of curriculum data and subjects taught. The present methodology better reflects the status of schools who do not have teachers with a post A level qualification in specific subjects.

The information provided does not consider the subject taught by teachers. For example, a teacher with a qualification in mathematics may instead teach computer science. Information on subjects taught and teacher’s post A level qualifications is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england

To reduce the burden during the COVID-19 outbreak, schools and local authorities were not required to provide information on teacher qualifications in 2020. Therefore, the information provided relates to the November 2019 School Workforce Census.