§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress has been made towards reducing class sizes for five, six and seven year olds. [85521]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe number of pupils aged 5, 6 and 7 in classes over 30 have fallen by almost 130,000, from 485,000 in January 1998 to 356,000 in January 1999. In March, £150 million of allocations were announced for 1999–2000, enabling over 4,000 extra teachers to be employed from September and over 1,000 additional classrooms to be built. As a result, fewer than 200,000 pupils will be in large infant classes from September 1999. The implementation of the class size pledge will mean that there will be a net gain of 12,000 places at popular schools, significantly enhancing parental preference.
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