The booming private school sector may have a part to play in teacher shortages. In the year from January 2000, an extra 8,000 pupils were being educated in the independent sector. Its pupil teacher ratio also improved during the same period, from 9.9 pupils per teacher to 9.7. Not surprising then that, overall, independent schools gained around 1,500 teachers during the year - equivalent to approximately 7 per cent of those who joined the teaching profession in 1999, based upon figures quoted in the Teachers Review Body Report of 2001.

Not all pupils are likely to stay long term in the private sector. Some parents are temporarily exercising their rights as consumers to buy the best schooling they can afford. Since the recession of the early 1990s, when unemployment forced parents feeling the pinch to withdraw children, some schools are looking overseas to sell their places.

London has 12,000 teachers in its independent schools (one in five of the sector). The South-east accounts for 47 per cent of the increase in independent school staff during last year. This is also the region where state schools find it most difficult to recruit and retain staff.

John Howson e-mail john.howson@lineone.net