Industry News
Government 'must redouble efforts to get class sizes down'
Posted on 29th April 2008
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on the government to "redouble its efforts to get class sizes down to the legal maximum".
Statistics published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families's (DCSF's) School Consensus today (April 29th) showed that the average class size taught by one teacher has risen to 27.7.
The proportion of Key Stage 1 (Primary) pupils being taught in classes of over the legal limit of 30 is also up by 0.4 per cent from January 2007, equivalent to around 200 classes. Classes in other age groups had decreased.
Acting secretary of the NUT Christine Blower said: "The government needs to set itself an ambitious target of a maximum of 20 pupils per teacher by 2020."
She added that this meant attracting more teachers and also called on any local authorities contemplating closing schools to reconsider.
In 1997, the government committed to reducing primary school class sizes to 30 children or less.