§ 9. Mr. Swinglerasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education what are his latest figures of secondary classes of over 50, over 40, and over 30 pupils, respectively.
§ Sir E. BoyleThe figures for January, 1957, will be available in the autumn. In January, 1956, in schools maintained and assisted by local education authorities there were 38,940 senior classes with more than 30 pupils. Of these 4,181 classes had more than 40 pupils and of these again 64 had more than 50.
§ Mr. SwinglerIs it now the Minister's policy to reduce the size of secondary classes to a maximum of 30 pupils? Does that remain the policy of the hon. Gentleman's Department If so, what will he do to enlarge the school building programme as well as to recruit more teachers, so as to get rid of the very large number of over-sized classes?
§ Sir E. BoyleAs I have explained on several occasions in the House, our prime aim during the last few years has been to cut down the size of classes in primary schools. We believe that that improvement can be maintained without effecting adversely the size of classes in secondary schools. My noble Friend is confident that in the next few years the increase in the number of teachers will be fully sufficient to match the increase in the number of children, but he hopes that as the numbers in the primary schools fall some primary school teachers will be willing to take jobs in secondary schools.