Labour close to meeting promise on class sizes

By Rebecca Smithers
education correspondent

British government to continue class size reductions

The government yesterday hailed a "radical" reduction in the number of pupils in infant school classes of more than 30, and announced £73m to ensure that smaller class sizes are continued in the subsequent, junior age group.
Figures published by the Department for Education showed that in September this year only 30,000 children aged five to seven were in classes of more than 30 pupils - a significant fall from the 171,000 the same time last year.

Labour's promise to cut class sizes for five, six and seven- year-olds was one of its key manifesto pledges. Following its victory, the party promised no infant class would have more than 30 pupils by 2002, later brought forward to September 2001.

Publishing the statistics, the education secretary, David Blunkett, said: "Today's figures show a further huge drop in the number of infants in large classes. This is excellent news for children and shows not only that this government is delivering on a key election pledge, but that we are doing so early ... this government is the first to achieve such radical reductions".

Class sizes for eight to 11-year-olds are also starting to fall, as are those for primary classes overall, after rising year on year since 1990. But Mr Blunkett said that to maintain the benefits of smaller class sizes when children moved from infant to junior classes, he was making available £73m next year to ensure that eight to 11-year-olds who had been in smaller classes would continue to benefit.

"This is a decisive answer to our critics who wrongly predicted that smaller classes for infants would inevitably lead to larger classes for junior pupils," he said.

The new money for key stage 2 classes is in addition to the £620m package for the infant, key stage 1 classes, which includes £310m previously used by the Tories for its assisted places scheme.

This funded school places for talented youngsters from families unable to afford fees but was scrapped by Labour. Mr Blunkett again ruled out the prospect of limits imposed for classes at secondary level, as ill advised and impractical.

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, welcomed the news and hoped the government "goes on to meet its election manifesto commitment to get all class sizes below 30 for this age group within the next year".

"The only reservation we harbour is the fact that the government has spent considerably more than originally planned through the savings achieved by the abolition of the assisted places scheme (£135m a year) to achieve this objective.

"Several hundred million pounds of additional money has been pumped into the exercise pandering unduly to parental choice allowing popular schools to expand, while others had surplus places."

But the shadow education secretary, Theresa May, said: "One of Labour's key election pledges was to cut infant classes to 30 or under, but at what cost to other pupils?

"The fact that David Blunkett is having to put money into classes for eight to 11 years to cut class sizes is an admission that his policy is creating problems for older children".

Sourced from: The Guardian/The Observer