Much of the information which is available through online statistics is only applicable to England. However, yearly UK data (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/VOL/v0211/index.html) give an overview of the expenditure, number of schools, post compulsory education, qualifications and some international comparisons for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. English data are described in more detail below.
In the UK as a whole there were 10.1 million pupils in 1999/00 compared to 9.3 million in 1990/91. The overall number of schools in the UK remained the same at 34,600 schools. Wales has 1,660 primary schools and 229 secondary, Scotland 2,293 primary and 238 secondary and Northern Ireland 941 primary and 238 secondary. In Wales and Scotland all secondary schools are comprehensive; England and Northern Ireland have 164 and 166 grammar schools respectively. The recent introduction of the other categories, specialist and beacon schools which may be grammar, secondary modern or comprehensive has added to the diversity of schools in England in particular.
The most recent figures (collected in the school census January 2000 http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/VOL/v0192/index.html) showed that there are 18,158 maintained (i.e. state funded) primary schools in England with 4,120,000 pupils and 3,550 maintained secondary schools with 3,181,813 full time pupils. Figures for the same year show that there were 1,197 special schools with 94,142 pupils. The 295 pupil referral units had 8,479 pupils. There were 2,202 independent schools (including both primary and secondary) taking 563,402 pupils. The running costs of City Technology Colleges are paid for from public funds but the legal status of CTCs is that they are independent schools. Of the pupils in independent schools 16,593 were in CTCs.
At a time when the Government is proposing in the recent Green Paper (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/buildingonsuccess/transforming_education/index.shtml) to encourage more religious schools it is interesting to see how many religious schools currently exist. Roughly 35% of primary schools and 16% of secondary schools have a religious character. January 2000 (2) figures show that of maintained primary schools 11,782 have no religious character, 4,523 are Church of England, 1,752 Roman Catholic, 28 Methodist and 47 of other Christian faiths. Of the non-Christian primary schools 25 are Jewish schools and there is one Sikh school.
At secondary level 2,967 schools have no religious character, 193 are Church of England, 356 Roman Catholic and 27 of other Christian faith. There are 5 Jewish secondary schools, 1 Sikh and 1'other' (undefined).
Although all 'maintained' schools are funded by public money they differ in how they are governed and the powers of the individual governing bodies. In England in January 2000 11,407 primary and 2,375 secondary schools were community schools. Here the local education authority employs the school?s staff, owns the premises and is the 'admission authority' i.e. sets up the admission policy of the school. 3,728 primary schools and 543 secondary schools were voluntary aided; here the governing body is the employer and is the admission authority. The premises and land are usually owned by the governing body or a charitable foundation, which will usually form the majority of the governors. 2,644 schools primary and 132 secondary schools are voluntary controlled. In these schools the LEA has a more major role than in aided schools, both for employing the staff and over admissions. Premises and land are usually owned by the charitable foundation associated with the school. 359 primary schools and 500 secondary schools are foundation schools. Powers and responsibilities here are similar to those in voluntary aided schools. Therefore in roughly a quarter of all schools the governing body is the employer of the staff and has power over the admissions policy of the school in line with government regulations.
The first specialist schools were set in up 1994. By September 2000 (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2001_0031) there were 536 specialist schools, specialising in technology (312), language (99), sports (67) and arts (57). In January 2001 there was a target to have 1000 specialist schools by 2004, but the Green Paper (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/buildingonsuccess/transforming_education/index.shtml) now proposes that by 2006, 1,500 of English secondary schools will be specialist schools. Beacon schools also have a small amount of extra funding to share approaches to teaching to raise standards (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/beaconschools/faq/). In January there were 586 Beacon schools and the target for 2004 was for 1000 Beacon schools (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2001_0031) the Green Paper says that this target will be achieved by 2001 and proposes that there will be some 400 beacon secondary schools in the 'longer term'. A year ago the Government announced that it would be encouraging the setting up of City Academies as independent schools run by business and voluntary sector sponsors and publicly funded. Ten are at various stages of being set up in Bexley, Brent, Haringey, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, two in Southwark and Walsall(http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2001_0240).
There are 150 Local Education Authorities in England. 10 Government office regions have been set up throughout England and a map (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/VOL/v0192/index.html) is available with a list of the LEAs included in each region. Each region has roughly 15 LEAs. London is divided into Inner London and the surrounding Outer London LEAs; the rest are regionally divided into, for example, the South West and North East. A parliamentary answer illustrated that each LEA may combine several parliamentary constituencies(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000711/text/00711w04.htm#00711w04.html_sbhd4).
In 18 authorities, following their inspection by OFSTED outlining weaknesses, the DfEE is working to get alternative provision for some or all of the council’s services. (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2001_0054) The Excellence in Cities programme focusses on raising standards in inner cities. 25 local authorities have been involved and a further 33 will be involved by September 2001 (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/cm010208/text/10).
There are 99 Education Action Zones, the most recent (26) were set up as small Education Action Zones involving a few schools as part of the Excellence in Cities Programme (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/eaz).
March 2001
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