Teachers' unions have expressed

Teachers' unions have expressed scepticism about Government statistics published last week that show a 2.3 per cent rise in the number of teachers in England. According to the figures there are now 419,600 full-time equivalent regular teachers, an increase of 9,400 since January 2001. The statistics also show that vacancies in nursery, primary, secondary and special schools fell by 490 to an overall vacancy rate of 1.2 per cent and that there were an additional 26,700 support staff - up 14 per cent. But Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said the figures were 'fairly...