Crammed classrooms make a mockery of SNP targets

Published on Sunday 23 September 2007 00:04

TENS of thousands of Scottish primary school children are being taught in overcrowded classes, many of which are at least 50% bigger than the official Government target.

The SNP administration has vowed to work towards P1-P3 classes of no more than 18 children but an investigation by Scotland on Sunday has revealed hundreds of classes with at least 28 pupils.

In Edinburgh, the average P2 class - mostly six-year-olds - is 29, just one below the maximum allowed and 11 above the Government's target.

In North Lanarkshire, the average for P1 classes is at the maximum of 25, and seven above the target.

Education experts last night estimated the SNP could only deliver its pledge by boosting teacher numbers by up to 6,000 to 26,000 and increasing funding by 100m a year just to pay the salaries.

The extra classrooms needed in most cases would further increase the cost.

Other experts have told Scotland on Sunday that setting a maximum class size in the early years of primary school is less important that making sure that the very best teachers are recruited.

In another blow for the Nationalists' policy, this newspaper recently revealed that the country's two largest councils - Glasgow and Edinburgh - would effectively refuse to implement the plan unless forced to by legislation.

Using Freedom of Information legislation, we asked all of Scotland's 32 mainland and island councils for their average class sizes for the first three years of primary school.

In many authorities, children are being educated in classes at or near the Government's current 25 maximum for P1 and the 30 limit for the next two years of education.

Hardly any primary classes are currently at or below the ambition of 18.

In Aberdeen City, the average P1 class is 24 and in Perth and Kinross it is 23.

North Lanarkshire's P2s and P3s have average classes of 28 and 29 respectively.

The average for North Ayrshire P3s is over 27. Aberdeenshire has 11 P2 and P3 year classes with 28 or more pupils.

Only five authorities had average class sizes within the SNP's 18-pupil target, two of them the islands of Orkney and Shetland.

Of the mainland councils, only Inverclyde, Borders and Midlothian had early primary classes averaging on or under the 18 limit.

Seventeen authorities supplied figures for how many P1-P3 classes would have more than 28 pupils. The total was 210, suggesting the national figure could be at least 400.

One authority, Glasgow, refused to supply figures, while a number of other councils - South Ayrshire, East Lothian and West Lothian - claimed they were still finalising numbers even though term started in mid-August.

A spokesman for Stirling Council said he believed the figures were "not relevant" and declined to release them.

Dundee pledged to provide the figures but failed to do so.

All these decisions are being appealed under Freedom of Information laws by Scotland on Sunday.

Teaching unions and opposition politicians said that they would hold the Scottish Government to its pre-election 18-pupil pledge.

Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tory education spokesman, said: "What is clear from these figures is that there is a long way for the SNP to go in terms of meeting its pledge and that it will come with an enormous price both in terms of the extra teachers to be taken on and in terms of building the rooms for these smaller classes."

A spokesman for the EIS teaching union said: "Class-size reductions are vital in ensuring that all pupils have an opportunity to meet their full academic potential.

"Modern teaching methods, which place greater emphasis on individual attention for each child, make the larger class sizes of the past increasingly impractical.

"Teachers, parents and pupils have a right to expect local authorities and the Scottish Government to work together, both to meet existing class-size-reduction commitments and also to continue to further reduce class sizes in the future."

Professor David Bell of Stirling University, an expert in the economics of education who acts as adviser to Holyrood's powerful finance committee, said the SNP's target was "ambitious" and would come will a price tag of more than 100m.

He added: "Before we spend such significant amounts of money I would really like to be reassured that we have established beyond doubt that all the alternative ways of spending that money would not be more effective. I would like it to be made very clear that the evidence is unambiguous on this before we proceed."

The education chief of one of the few authorities to get any class numbers under the SNP's targets backed the smaller class sizes but questioned how easy it would be to pay for the staff to get class numbers down any further.

Ian Fraser, the corporate director of education and social work at Inverclyde Council, which has an average of 17.75 children in P2 classes, and 18.7 in P1, said: "The low class sizes are intentional, they are not because of low numbers of children.

"The research shows that it makes a difference, especially so for children from deprived backgrounds.

"But we have calculated that to get all class sizes in P1-P3 under 18 would require a 30% increase in our primary teaching staff." He added that he believed his figures would be representative for other mainland councils, and that his estimates excluded the costs of finding more room for the classes. There are 20,085 full-time primary teachers in Scotland.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "These figures are informative and if anything they prove the need for more work to get class sizes down.

"We remain committed to reducing class sizes in the first three years of primary school in Scotland."

• FIONA Hyslop, the Education Secretary, claims that reducing class sizes will free up teachers to focus on individual pupils during the crucial early stage of schooling.

The goal is a laudable one, but it is clear that it will come at a hefty price.

Professor David Bell of Stirling University, an expert in the economics of education and an adviser to the Scottish Parliament, felt the pledge would require significant revenue and recruitment.

"In terms of pure wage costs, a primary teacher costs 40,000 a head," he said. "If you want a thousand more of them, that will cost 40m, and if you want 2,500 more of them, the total would rise to 100m.

"Of course, that would be a recurring cost and the issue of future salary rises will also need to be taken into account."

Bell said his sums did not include the costs of providing extra space and administration.

"There are around 23,000 primary teachers in Scotland, so 2,500 teachers would almost be like a 10% increase in staff.

"You would, of course, need to make a corresponding 10% increase in capital expenditure or make extremely clever use of existing facilities.

"With all that said, I think it is a reasonably ambitious pledge for a government to make."

Glasgow City Council has claimed it would have to build an extra 186 classrooms and hire 397 more teachers at a cost of 47m to comply with the policy.

Labour estimates that 2,500 extra primary teachers would be required.

Other education leaders also point out that in order to meet the pledge they would have to introduce 'composite classes', where two classes sit in the same room, with two teachers.

Marilyne MacLaren, Edinburgh's education leader, told this newspaper two weeks ago: "Parents believe this is going to be separate classes of 18 children, and that is not deliverable. What will happen is that there will be large classes of two teachers."

And does size really matter?

EDUCATION experts have questioned the emphasis that the Scottish Government is placing on limiting pupil numbers and have posed the question: does class size really matter?

Eric Wilkinson, Professor of Education at Glasgow University, said: "Undoubtedly, reducing class sizes would mean more individual attention for many children and would give the teacher the chance to concentrate on those in most need of his or her attention.

"However, the fact of the matter is that it is not going to make that much of a difference. It is the quality of the teaching, not the quantity of class numbers, that is the most important thing.

"If people think it is going to be a panacea which cures all of the problems in schools at a stroke then they are going to be disappointed."

Bob Lingard, Professor of Education at Moray House School of Education in Edinburgh University, added: "The research shows that in terms of effects on pupil learning it is the teaching practices of the teacher which really count.

"As such, you could reduce class sizes and achieve very little. The overriding issue is what teachers do in classes."

A headteacher from a Glasgow primary school, who did not wish to be named, said: "The current obsession with reducing class sizes completely misses the point. The key to improving standards is to produce high-quality teachers. I have experience of classes with 18 or 19 pupils making poor progress because the standard of teaching was just not up to scratch.

"Inversely I've seen classes with more than 30 pupils which have been extremely successful because of the excellent teaching provided."