Infant Classes (Hansard, 29 October 1998)

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress he has made in reducing class sizes for five, six and seven year olds. [57141]

§ Ms Estelle Morris
We expect to meet our class size pledge ahead of schedule. The School Standards and Framework Act 1998, which received Royal Assent on 24 July, places a duty on both local education authorities (LEAs) and governing bodies to limit the size of infant classes for 5,6 and 7 year olds to 30 or below by September 2001 at the latest—ahead of our Election pledge.
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In January 1998 there were 485,000 infant pupils in classes over 30. In September 1998 the figure was 345,000 pupils. These figures show the effects of the allocation of the first tranche of class size funding—the £22 million allocated for 1,500 additional teachers from this September. We have also allocated £45 million to build some 600 extra classrooms to reduce class sizes. Following the Comprehensive Spending Review additional resources are available over the next three years to enable LEAs to meet the infant class size limit in nearly all schools by September 2000–18 months earlier than the Election pledge. A total of £620 million has been made available to deliver our infant class size policy.
LEAs are now in the process of submitting plans, for the Secretary of State's approval, setting out how they will implement the class size policy. We expect most of these to have been approved in early 1999.

§ Mrs. May
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many additional full-time qualified teachers have been identified by local education authorities in their plans for reducing infant class sizes as being required to implement(a) the required reduction in infant class sizes in the school years 1999–2000 and 2000–01 and (b) measures required under paragraph 10 of the Schedule to the Education (Plans for Reducing Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 1998. [56901]

§ Ms Estelle Morris
This information is not available as plans to reduce infant class sizes have not yet been received from all LEAs. Once the plans are received, officials in the Department will be discussing them in detail with authorities.

§ Mrs. May
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many of the extra teachers which his Department reported had been recruited as part of the programme to reduce infant class sizes were recruited(a) on completion of teacher training courses, (b) from previous teaching posts in primary schools, (c) from posts in infant schools in local education authorities who were not provided with grants for recruitment and (d) from other sources; [56663]
(2) how many teachers of infant classes were in post in September (a) 1997 and (b) 1998. [56664]

§ Mr. Charles Clarke
The information requested is not available centrally.