Class size 'failure' accusation

Estelle Morris rejects accusations over class sizes

The government was accused of allowing class sizes to rise in secondary schools, in the first education question time of the new parliamentary session.

Drawing up battle lines that are likely to become familiar in the run-up to the next general election, the Conservatives accused the government of being "selective with statistics" over class sizes.

We were right to concentrate on cutting class sizes for five, six and seven year olds because school inspections have shown that that's where class size matters most

Estelle Morris, School Standards Minister

Conservative education spokesman, James Clappison, said that while infant class sizes had fallen, across all age ranges there had been an overall increase.

Accusing the government of saying that "secondary school class sizes don't matter," Mr Clappison called for an admission that "taking primary and secondary class sizes together the government's policy has failed".

But the School Standards Minister Estelle Morris defended the government's record, saying that it was fulfilling its promises for infants and that funds were available for secondary schools wanting to cut class sizes.

"We were right to concentrate on cutting class sizes for five, six and seven year olds because inspections have shown that that's where class size matters most," said the minister.

'Policy announcement'

And she claimed that the Conservatives' "conversion" to believing that class sizes were important represented a "policy announcement", as they had not set their own targets on class sizes when in office.

Supporting the government's efforts on class sizes, Labour MP for Harlow, Bill Rammell, said the Conservatives' comments over class sizes "beggared belief", compared with their position when in power.

At the centre of the dispute is the government's manifesto pledge on class sizes, which promised to set a maximum upper limit of 30 pupils for classes of five, six and seven year olds.

The government is on course to achieve this specific target and has repeatedly promoted its success in approaching this lower limit ahead of schedule.

But the Conservatives argue that this misses the bigger picture, when many older primary pupils and secondary school pupils are being taught in class sizes that are growing rather than getting smaller.

No substantial increase

However a senior government source has rejected as inaccurate any suggestion that there has been a substantial increase in older primary and secondary class sizes in the lifetime of the present government.

According to the government, under the Conservatives between 1990 and 1997 secondary class size averages rose from 20.3 to 21.7 - and since Labour has been in office, the figure has risen by another 0.3% to 22.

But the government says this shows that an inherited upward trend has been contained - and that if head teachers changed their spending priorities that increase could be immediately reversed.

And among older primary pupils, aged eight to eleven, the government says the figures are now showing that fewer pupils are being taught in over-crowded classrooms.