Dropout rates among postgraduate trainee teachers increased dramatically in the first two years of Labour's administration, according to the latest figures.
The proportion of students who started postgraduate certificate of education courses but failed to achieve qualified teacher status increased from 12.7 per cent in 1996-97 to 16.1 per cent in 1998-99. Overall, the numbers of people starting PGCE courses for secondary school teaching fell from 14,260 in 1996 to 13,140 in 1998.
The figures came in a parliamentary written answer by higher education minister Baroness Blackstone.