Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of secondary schools which have no (a) English (b) maths (c) history and (d) religious education teachers who originally qualified to teach that subject.

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 (QTS). All trainee teachers must meet these by the time they complete their training.

The latest data from November 2021, as published in the School Workforce Census, states that of 2,915 state-funded secondary schools in England: three did not employ a teacher with a post-A level qualification in English, 19 in mathematics, 15 in history and 155 in religious education.

These figures relate only to schools where the subjects were taught. In addition, figures only include schools that supplied both curriculum and teacher qualification data. Subject taught information is based on a typical week of teaching, as determined by the school.

Information on subjects taught and teachers’ 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.