§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many additional teachers would need to be employed to ensure that school classes would contain a maximum of 30 pupils.
§ Miss Margaret Jackson:There is no exact relationship between a given number of teachers and the elimination of classes over a certain size: much depends on the distribution of pupils among schools and the way the schools are organised and choose to deploy their teachers. With these important reservations, a calculation similar to that adopted by the former National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers indicates that approximately 55.000 additional teachers would be needed to permit the elimination of classes over 30 in maintained primary and secondary schools in the current school year.