§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the way in which pupil:teacher ratios and class sizes are currently calculated by his Department. [1538]
§ Mr. ByersThe pupil:teacher ratios (PTRs) within schools are calculated by dividing the total number of pupils on school registers (counting each part-time pupil as 0.5) by the total number of qualified teachers (adjusted to reflect the part-time working of some teachers).
Class sizes are calculated by dividing the numbers of pupils being taught together in classes at a particular point in the school timetable by the number of teachers, qualified or unqualified, deployed in such classes. Average class sizes are normally calculated for those classes involving only one teacher.
Both measures are derived from information collected from the annual count of pupils and teachers in schools in January each year.