Large classes up 7% in primaries

Four out of ten primary school children are taught in classes of more than 30, according to figures that have been released to the Labour Party.

David Blunkett, the party's education spokesman, will highlight the rise in class sizes when he speaks to the NAHT conference on Thursday.

The figures for January 1995 show a 7 per cent increase in the proportion in classes with more than 30 pupils since the previous year, taking the total to 1.6 million. They also show that the number of primary pupils in classes of over 40 have risen by 27 per cent in a single year, from 14,000 to 18,000.

No class size figures are available yet for 1996, although the Department for Education and Employment admitted last week that the number of pupils per teacher was continuing to rise. In primary schools there are now 23.2 pupils for every teacher compared with 22.5 last year.

Mr Blunkett described the figures as a damning indictment of government complacency over the issue. Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, has said that in general the quality of teaching is more important than class size.

"Mrs Shephard should listen to the advice of education experts and her own chief inspector, who admitted in November last year that small class sizes are of benefit in the early years," Mr Blunkett said.

A spokesman for Mrs Shephard said that the report from the chief inspector of schools had supported the view of the Secretary of State. The proportion of children in single-teacher classes of more than 30, without any kind of help, had dropped from 35 per cent in 1979 to 30 per cent today, he said.

Large classes were often the result of a school putting children together for music, drama or sport, he added.