Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many schools do not have a qualified teacher in a subject they offer.

Legislation does not specify that teachers must have a degree in a particular subject or discipline. It is the Teachers’ Standards that 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.

Of the 2,957 state-funded secondary schools in England that supplied data on curriculum subjects taught and the subject of qualifications held by their teachers, there were 1,256 schools, equivalent to 42%, where at least one subject was taught for which none of its teachers held a relevant post A level qualifications in that subject.

The most common subjects where no teachers in a school held a relevant post A level qualification in the subject were: computing (293 schools); Spanish (271); media studies (225); ICT (206); religious education (153); citizenship (105) and engineering (105).

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

Information on subjects taught and teacher 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.