HC Deb 10 February 1999 vol 325 c250W
Mr. Swayne

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimates his Department has made of the percentage of(a) five year olds, (b) six year olds and (c) seven year olds that were in classes of 30 or less in January 1997. [70059]

Mr. Hain

As I informed the hon. Member in my reply on 3 February 1999,Official Report, column 609, information on the number of pupils in classes of 30 or more was not available prior to 1998. Until January 1998, data were collected centrally only for the number of classes, by size of class, not for the number of pupils in each class.

In January 1997, 24 per cent. of ordinary classes in primary schools had more than 30 pupils.

In future this will become the responsibility of the National Assembly.