He was being questioned by MPs on the education select committee who were concerned about recruitment and retention in the sector.

Mr Healey said he accepted there was a “differential” between the pay of teachers in the different sectors, but he did not recognise the figure of pound;6,000, saying it was more like pound;2,000. He thought that Paul Mackney, the general secretary of NATFHE, the lecturers’ union, had posited the higher figure.

In fact the figure of pound;6,000 was given to the committee in October by Ruth Silver, principal of Lewisham College. Ms Silver is a former adviser to the committee.

Mr Healey said the turnover of staff in FE colleges was at about 10 per cent. Although pay was a problem, it was up to individual colleges to decide the terms and conditions for staff.

He said one of the challenging problems in FE was its casualisation, with 36 per cent of teaching staff part-time, and many on term-time-only contracts.

Barry Sheerman, the committee chair, said that representatives from schools displayed a positive feeling about what was happening in their sector.

“But we get a different feel from FE. There is a great lack of morale, a deep discontent. If we thought you weren’t picking that up, we would be concerned.”

Mr Healey said he recognised the problems and accepted that from 1997 onwards schools had been the priority. But the Government was now starting to invest more heavily in further education.Things were changing.

Mr Healey gave a hint that the Government might introduce paid educational leave to help people with problems of poor literacy or numeracy. Asked if it was on the agenda he said: “Yes, it is in positive thinking.”

On prison education, Mr Sheerman wondered if educational success could be part of the sentence or a condition of parole. “If you don’t get your GCSE you do not get out of prison.” Mr Healey had not considered that.