§ 6. Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)If he will make a statement on secondary school class sizes since May 1997. [114602]
§ The Minister for School Standards (Ms Estelle Morris)The most recent figures show that in January 1999 the average secondary class had 21.9 pupils. The corresponding figure for January 1998 was 21.7. January saw the first fall in overall average class size for 10 years, from 24.9 to 24.8. We are also well on course to deliver our pledge to limit infant classes to 30 by September 2001 at the latest.
§ Ms MorrisAbsolutely. We pledged that by 2002 there would be no child of five, six or seven in a class of over 30. We are on schedule to deliver that in advance of the target date. We have already cut the figure from more than 450,000 to 100,000, and in most local authorities it will be reduced further by September. The hon. Gentleman will be well aware that in his constituency six schools have received more than £110,000 revenue to 1101 reduce class sizes and three schools have received between them almost £250,000 to build classrooms and other facilities.
§ Mr. Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield)May I urge my right hon. Friend to continue to build policies based on good research and experience in other areas? While I congratulate her on the fact that we are reducing class sizes where it matters—in the early years up to seven where all the research says it is crucial—I ask her to be guided also by the research that suggests that other techniques after seven are probably a better use of resources.
§ Ms MorrisI take my hon. Friend's point, and the evidence clearly shows that it is in those early years that small class sizes are most important. He will know that for key stages 2, 3, and 4 we are adopting several strategies, including 20,000 more classroom assistants in the next few years, an advance in information and communications technology and, of course, the welcome extra money that will go directly into school budgets that was announced on Tuesday. That extra money will give teachers the flexibility to decide how to spend it to raise standards for children.
§ Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere)Are not parents of secondary school children likely to be more than a little sceptical at the Minister's claim that the Government have fulfilled their pledge when the number of children in classes of more than 30 in secondary schools has risen by 25 per cent. since they came to office? Is not class size also important in secondary schools, as the Secondary Heads Association has pointed out? Larger classes in secondary schools make teaching even more stressful in schools in which it is already difficult to teach. Is not the situation especially bad in the former grant-maintained schools, which have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in some cases through starvation of funding since this Government came to office? Given that the parents of children in secondary schools may well be waking up to the fact that they face large extra taxation as the result of the loss of the married couples allowance, are they not fully justified in concluding that in that area, as in so many others, the Government are taxing more and delivering less?
§ Ms MorrisI have always thought it sad—although perhaps only to be expected—that every single question on class size from the Opposition has concentrated solely on secondary schools, because our record in key stages 1 and 2 is good and shows that we are delivering the goods. It is amazing that Opposition Front Benchers have not yet woken up to the announcement that was made on Tuesday. The Chancellor put more money directly into secondary school budgets. The amount of money that will go into those budgets on 1 April is enough to pay for an extra 3,500 teachers, which is three times as many teachers as would be needed to reverse the recent trend in secondary class sizes. Indeed, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May), primary schools will receive £210,000 and secondary schools will receive £280,000.
The Government have already delivered class size success at key stages 1 and 2. We made the pledge and we have delivered, and the money is now in the hands of head teachers, so that if they decide to do so they can pay 1102 for teachers to reduce class sizes in the next financial year. That is good news for teachers, good news for schools and good news for pupils—but poor news for the Opposition.