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Background
Size
In England and Wales there are:
- 25,320 maintained schools comprising 20,360 nursery and primary
schools, 3,780 secondary schools and 1,180 special schools;
- 488,000 teachers, including 75,200 who teach on a part-time
basis;
- 166,000 (full-time equivalent) education support, administrative
or clerical staff;
- 8 million pupils;
- 350,000 governors; and
- 171 Local Education Authorities.
Diversity
The great diversity of schools serve a wide range of local communities
in rural, suburban and inner-city areas:
- there are primary schools with only a few pupils and secondaries
with more than 2000;
- the average size primary school has about 250 pupils and
the average size secondary school 850 pupils; and
- school budgets range from less than £100,000 in the
smallest primary schools to just over £6 million in the
largest secondary schools.
Total expenditure
Expenditure on education, including that funded directly by
central government, constitutes the third largest area of expenditure
of taxpayers' money after social security and health:
- expenditure on all maintained education services as a whole
is £22 billion;
- around 25 per cent of the total is raised locally through
the council tax;
- around £17 billion of the total is spent by schools;
- the teachers' paybill is £13 billion;
- the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in respect
of England and Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Education and
Training in Wales (Estyn), which are responsible for the independent
inspection of schools, have budgets totalling £115 million;
and
- the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), which promotes initial
and in-service training for school teachers, has a budget of
£320 million.
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