I do recognise that, where recruitment difficulties persist, teachers can be put under great pressure.

At different times I taught humanities, social sciences and pre-vocational education.

By creating useful job descriptions and making clear what qualifications should be expected, the Department aims to help improve schools' ability to recruit the right people.

It is a very unusual sector and the one thing I would ask of them is to understand that for most of them one-third of their films are being financed by the taxpayer and that carries huge accountability and responsibility.

My Department has already recognised this and has been working specifically on the technical support issue since January and will offer advice to schools during the Autumn term.

Before this government came to power, many failing schools were simply allowed to drift on in a pattern of continuing failure. The government is determined to break that pattern and is successfully doing so.

The need for improved technical support in schools has expanded as the Government and schools have increased their investment in information and communications technologies.