Russell admits setback for class size pledges

Published on Wednesday 10 March 2010 21:58

MICHAEL Russell yesterday confirmed that his plans to impose a primary class size limit of 25 would not be delivered in time for the new intake of youngsters.

The education secretary admitted that implementing the SNP's class size pledges had been "more difficult" than expected.

Appearing in front of Holyrood's education committee, Mr Russell was tackled on class sizes, declining teacher numbers in Scotland and the SNP's free school meals policy.

He also announced that a consultation on the proposed regulations to set a legal limit of 25 for classes in primary one to three will be published on Friday.

But the proposals will not come into effect until the autumn – after the beginning of the new school year in August.

Fiona Hyslop, the previous education secretary, promised in September to make it law that a primary-one class could not contain more than 25 pupils.

The move was to help councils reduce class sizes towards the government target of 18 for the first three years of primary school and to prevent parents making legal challenges.

The existing statutory limit of 30 pupils in primary one has resulted in parents legally challenging councils that tried to limit class sizes. The parents successfully argued that their children could not be denied a place if the class was under the legal maximum of 30.

Des McNulty, Labour's education spokesman, said: "The SNP have failed to keep the promises they made to Scottish pupils, parents and teachers. When he became education secretary, Mike Russell gave a commitment to introduce a statutory cap of 25 on class sizes. The deadline has now passed and next year parents of P1 pupils in Edinburgh and elsewhere will face class sizes of up to 30."

He added: "With no backstop of 25 in place, pupils will suffer. We have had no explanation or comment from Mr Russell, a man who normally takes every opportunity to hawk himself round the media."

Mr Russell said: "I have worked with our partners in local government to reset the relationship and drive forward progress on key policies such as class sizes in early primary, free school meals and early years."

Mr Russell insisted that progress is being made across the country after an SNP pledge to cut all classes for P1-3 pupils to 18 or less.

This has been scaled back to 20 per cent of classes by August this year and Mr Russell told Holyrood's education committee yesterday this will benefit 11,000 pupils.

He said: "Am I disappointed that we're not at 100 per cent? Of course. This has turned out to be more difficult than anybody anticipated. There have been political difficulties as well as practical difficulties."

Mr Russell told committee convener Karen Whitefield that the change to 20 per cent of classes was not an attempt to "save face" for the government.

Instead, he said it is aimed at injecting fresh "momentum" into the policy after he replaced Fiona Hyslop in the post last year.

He added: "I have believed that this is the right policy for longer than most. I believe that this policy makes a difference."