First, the good news. Teaching vacancies reported by schools in the regular January census are down on the record levels of last year. The overall drop from 4,980 to 4,480 is mostly the result of the number of primary vacancies falling from 2,110 last year to 1,760.

But that figure is still some 370 above what it was in Labour’s first year in government in January 1998.

Part of the fall is due to the continuing decline in the primary school population. With most of the funding being pupil-led, fewer pupils mean a drop in demand for teachers.

In the secondary sector, where pupil numbers are rising, the reduction has been smaller, with the total down by just 150 from the record 2,590 to just 2,440. This averages out at one fewer vacancy in every local authority. In January 1998, the vacancy total was 970 so vacancy levels in secondary schools are still more than double what they were at the start of the Government’s term in office.

Vacancies for maths teachers stand at 380. Although this is below the 410 announced last April, it is still above the 143 vacancies of 1999.

There are similar stories in the sciences and English, and the vacancy total for design and technology is worse than last year at 210, a new record in recent years.

This year the Government has also used a new vacancy measure using a less rigid definition. On that basis, total vacancies were more than 6,000.

Now for the bad news. Although overall teacher numbers have risen by some 9,000 to 419,000 much of the increase has been the result of a doubling of the number of unqualified instructors in the past year to a new record of 8,000. There are also more classroom-based trainees; up from 1,300 to more than 3,000.

When the Government came into office the combined total of instructors and trainees amounted to some 3,000 staff. Indeed, the increase in these untrained or partially-trained staff exceeds the 5,200 growth in qualified, regular, full-time teachers during the same period.

The challenge for the Government is clear: keep up improvements in primary schools and nurseries but focus attention more on the secondary sector during your second term in office.

FACTFILE

* Vacancies down from 4,980 to 4,480

* Number of teachers up from 410,200 to 419,600

* Unqualified teachers up from 5,600 to 11,300

* Part-time teachers up from 34,700 to 37,000

* Support staff up from 129,700 to 155,900

* Primary class sizes fall from 26.7 to 26.3

* Secondary class sizes down, from 22 to 21.9