Yesterday LDV reported on Nick Clegg’s announcement of the Lib Dems’ radical new education policies to fix inequalities in Britain’s ‘class-based education system’. In today’s Independent newspaper, there The Big Question feature has a very fair and balanced look at the issue, which you can read here – here’s an excerpt:
Why are we asking this now?
Because the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has announced that, if elected, his party would dramatically reduce class sizes for children aged five to seven – to just 15. it would be part of a £2bn cash injection into education spending.
Why is Nick Clegg doing this?
Parents should not have to pay in order to get their children into schools and colleges with smaller classes, he argues. A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that the gap in class sizes between state and private schools was larger in the UK – at 13 pupils per class – than anywhere else in the world. Internationally, the difference on average is between one and two pupils per class.
Is this really such a dramatic move?
Yes. The average class size in a state school is 25.8 pupils per class. The legal limit for a class for five to seven-year-olds – introduced by Labour as one of its first acts on getting to power in 1997 – is 30 pupils per class.
[…]
Are the Lib Dems alone in wanting to reduce class sizes?
They are the only party to come forward with specific proposals for a reduction – and this will be coupled with the introduction of a pupil premium which would give schools more money for each disadvantaged youngster they take on roll.
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2 Comments
My daughter is nearly six and in a state infants’ school in a class of 25.
The school has taught her to wax lyrical on environmental catastrophe, Diwali, Cubism. She has a ‘talking partner’ in her class with whom she can discuss her innermost thoughts.
Great! It would be even better if she could actually read.
Firstly, the Indy’s actually wrong about the Lib Dems being the only party to explicitly state a figure – the SNP support a reduction to 18 and have introduced this via the local government “concordat” signed by local authorities last year.
In Scotland, the party’s position has been to “move towards” a reduction, as the financial implications are too great to do in one move – you need more teachers, you need more classrooms, and you need more resources. The SNP would have us go to 18 now, and blame London for not giving Scotland the money to do it.
Reducing class sizes is all very well, but money needs to be spent on resources first before the classes can be reduced. In my local area, I can think of at least three schools which simply couldn’t cope with a reduction to 18 – mainly because they’re already at, or near, capacity.
Academic research on the reduction of class sizes is split on this – there’s no clear link yet between the reduction in numbers and an improvement in attainment, which is what we’re really looking for. Yes, classes will become easier to teach, and as a result there may be an increase in attainment, but because the reduction in size usually goes with an increase in spending it can’t be defined exactly.