Monitoring pupils 'more cost effective than cutting class sizes'

Published on Sunday 24 February 2008 21:05

REDUCING class sizes in an attempt to give children a better education is largely a waste of money, an expert has claimed.

Professor Dylan Wiliam, deputy director of the Institute of Education in London, said greater focus on monitoring pupils' progress would provide better value.

In research presented to the Chartered London Teachers Conference, he argued reducing class size by 30 per cent gives children the equivalent of four extra months of education a year but costs about 20,000 a class per year to deliver.

By contrast "formative assessment" – in which teachers constantly monitor and respond to children's progress – could provide eight extra months of educational development for only 2,000. He said: "It can therefore be 20 times as cost-effective as reducing class size, in terms of pupil achievement."

However, he conceded smaller classes did benefit unruly classes and early-years pupils with more individual attention.

But Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, said the two policies went hand in hand.

Ronnie Smith, its general secretary, said: "The only way to have formative assessment is in small class sizes, so I don't see them as either/ors or as polar opposite alternatives."

Cutting class sizes to 18 for primary 1-3 was a key election pledge of the SNP, although no timescale has been set for it.

Fiona Hyslop, the education secretary, said: "There is a convincing body of research evidence that supports smaller class sizes in early years, particularly for those who come from deprived backgrounds."