The revelation that pound;100 million a year is being “wasted” on training student teachers who quit the profession will not have pleased government ministers (TES, November 2).

Nevertheless, there are more young teachers in England’s schools than a decade ago. Overall, there are more than 20,000 more teachers under the age of 30 than at the start of the 1990s and the number of young staff will rise further.

However, there are also more teachers in their 50s than a decade ago, some 19,000 or so. Most are in their early 50s. Only around 22,000 of the 87,000 over 50 are 55 to 59.

Teachers who remain in post beyond 60 are a small but dedicated band. On average, there are probably about 20 in each authority compared with nearly 40 a decade ago. Despite changes to the pension rules in 1997 that cut early retirement benefits, many still want to leave in their 50s rather than at the official retirement age (TES, November 2).

Compared with a decade ago, the biggest fall has been in the number of teachers in their 30s; down by around 38,000. This has important implications for the recruitment of senior staff in the next few years, particularly in primaries where most first-time heads are appointed in their early 40s.

The number of applications for senior-management posts in primaries is low and looks unlikely to rise much in the near future.

The teaching force figures should help to dispel some of the scare stories about the disappearance of men from primary schools. However, the number of male primary staff is likely to fall further, perhaps settling at the 15,000-20,000 mark.

In secondaries, although the number of young men has risen, they will be unable to replace the far larger numbers retiring. The total number of male secondary teachers may fall to 40,000-50,000.

John Howson is managing director of Education Data Surveys. Email: john.howson@lineone.net