§ 16. Mr. Silvesterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the number of teachers required in primary schools in 1978; and on what size of class this estimate is based.
§ Miss BaconNo separate estimate of the number of teachers required in primary schools in 1978 has been made. An estimate of the total number of teachers needed in that year, with details of the basis of estimation, is given in Table 43 of Statistics of Education, 1967, Vol. 4, published last week.
§ Mr. SilvesterThe right hon. Lady has rightly drawn attention to Table 43, but may I ask her to answer the second part of the Question, which deals with the size of class on which this estimate is based? In view of what she said earlier about the Government not having abandoned the elimination of over-sized classes, is she satisfied that the estimate for 1978 will allow classes in primary schools to fall, on average, to below 30, as was promised in 1964?
§ Miss BaconThe Ninth Report of the National Advisory Council envisaged that it would be possible to reduce the number of over-40 primary classes to negligible proportions by 1978. I now expect this objective to be achieved some years earlier.