Industry News
State school site sales 'could lead to large class sizes'
Posted on 16th April 2008
A Channel Four News survey has discovered that 300 primary school sites have been sold off over the last decade, generating £230 million for local authorities.
The NUT has warned that the resulting shortage could lead to large class sizes across England and Wales as there will no longer be sufficient classroom space "down the road".
Oxfordshire netted £39.8 million as a result of its sale of school sites and Hertfordshire made £25.6 million.
Speaking to Channel Four, acting general secretary of the NUT Christine Blower said: "Whilst the pupil population might be decreasing at the moment this was the ideal opportunity to reduce class sizes and keep spending on education at the same level."
She added that this would have allowed the fulfilment of Gordon Brown's promises to fund state schools at the same level as those in the independent sector.
Councils say that the money raised from the sales has been spent on building new schools and facilities and have now pledged to put the revenue into education funding.