Fall in infant class sizes

Infant class sizes have fallen again

There has been another marked fall in the number of infant school pupils in England in classes of more than 30.

In September, only 30,000 children were in classes of more than 30 pupils, compared with 171,000 in September 1999.

Infants in classes of over 30

September 1998 354,000

September 1999 171,000

September 2000 30,000

The promise to cut class sizes for five, six and seven year olds was one of Labour's key pledges in the run up to the general election.

Following its victory, the party promised no infant class would have more than 30 pupils by 2002, later revised to September 2001.

Giving details of the official statistics, the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, said: "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.

"We have achieved this by making available £620m for extra teachers and classrooms - enough for 6,000 extra teachers and more than 2,000 extra classrooms.

David Blunkett: "Smaller infant classes give children a better start"

"Now around 450,000 pupils a year are having a better start to their education, and thousands more will do so in the future."

Smaller infant classes were supporting the literacy and numeracy strategies, he said.

Mr Blunkett also announced that, as a result of the year 2000 spending review, new money amounting to £73m would be available next year to make progress on class sizes for eight to eleven year olds.

Opposition unimpressed

The shadow education secretary, Theresa May, said this amounted to an admission that Labour's policy was creating problems for older children.

"It doesn't stop there. Under David Blunkett we have seen secondary school classes rise at an alarming rate," she said.

"Mr Blunkett should stop praising his infant figures and concentrate on the damage his policies have done to secondary schools."

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman, Phil Willis, welcomed the latest fall but said the government had to do more to reduce class sizes throughout primary school.

His party was committed to a maximum of 25 for every child aged up to 11, he said.

"Primary children will not gain any benefit from reduced class sizes in the early primary years if the class size increases again once they turn eight."

The Secondary Heads Association said the latest figures disguised the continuing increase in secondary school class sizes, especially for 11-14 year olds.

"It is likely that the government will go into the next election having presided over an increase in secondary school class sizes during a period when the government's top priority has been education," said the general secretary, John Dunford.

"Secondary heads will be looking for a strong commitment from all political parties to improve the core funding of secondary schools so that headteachers can reduce class sizes."