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PLEDGE TO CUT CLASS SIZES WILL TAKE 10 YEARS

RECRUITS: Classes will have to stay under 25 until there are more teachers

Wednesday February 13,2008

By Paul Gilbride Scottish Political Reporter

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THE SNP’s pledge to cut class sizes is in tatters after ministers were warned it would take more than 10 years.

Papers released under Freedom of Information rules revealed a meeting of education chiefs in July also heard that the commitment would require more than 4,000 additional student teachers and double the number of places on training courses.

The Scottish Education Directorate and the Faculty of University Deans, warned of the shortcomings of the SNP pledge to “reduce class sizes in primaries one, two and three to 18 pupils or less”, just two months after the party formed a minority Scottish Government.

Education chiefs told ministers that the scale meant it was not achievable within the four-year lifetime of a parliament.

Labour yesterday seized on the development, claiming parents had been “misled”. But a government spokeswoman insisted ministers were committed to class sizes and expected more than 20,000 teachers in training by 2011.

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Rhona Brankin, said: “The fact that SNP ministers were told last July their plans were undeliverable speaks volumes about everything that they said then and since.

“To state in a concordat that councils must ‘as quickly as possible’ deliver class sizes of 18 is disingenuous, given that the SNP were explicitly told by the Government’s own advisers that it was not deliverable within this spending review.

“Parents, pupils and teachers have been seriously misled.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The issue has progressed since last summer, with the groundbreaking and historic Concordat signed by the Scottish Government and COSLA to deliver year-on-year progress in reducing class sizes.

“For the first time, we have an agreed commitment between national government and local authorities to reduce class sizes in P1 to P3 to a maximum of 18 as quickly as possible, and improve early-years provision with access to a teacher for every pre-school child, as part of our early years intervention.

We are delivering our pledges on class sizes, and other important matters such as the council tax freeze, in partnership with local government under the terms of the Concordat.

Last November, Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop announced there would be “flexibility” in the policy amid claims the SNP had reneged on a key manifesto pledge. Miss Hyslop claimed she did not want to disrupt a P1 class of 25 just to bring it down to 18.

The move sparked a furious reaction with Labour leader Wendy Alexander saying at the time: “A lot of people across Scotland voted SNP because of this and yet, less than six months into this SNP Government, their Education Secretary has admitted it won’t happen.

“It is a pre-election pledge that should never have been made in the first place.”