§ 30. Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on class sizes in(a) primary and (b) secondary schools since May 1997. [132619]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe size of primary classes has gone down in each of the past two years after rising steadily throughout the previous 10 years. In January 1997, the size of the average primary class was 27.5. By January 2000 it had fallen to 27.1. The Government are well on target to deliver their pledge to limit the size of infant classes to 30 pupils, and 300,000 children have already benefited. £620 million is available to support the pledge, and allocations so far to York LEA amount to some £1.4 million. This has helped to reduce the size of the average Key Stage 1 class in the Vale of York to 24.2—the figure in January 1997 was 24.5. The size of the average Key Stage 2 class in the constituency has fallen to 27.1, from 27.2 in January 1997.
The size of the average secondary class in January 1997 was 21.7. In January 2000 it was 22.0, when the pupil-teacher ratio in secondary classes was 17.1. Secondary class sizes have been rising steadily since 1988, when the average figure was 19.9. However, a typical secondary school will in 2001–02 be receiving 189W £60,000 in direct grant to spend as they choose. If this was spent on teachers, the pupil-teacher ratio could be reduced by 0.6.