12th April 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Teachers across England have said that cutting class sizes in schools should be a top priority for whoever is in government. Christine Blower, the head of the National Union of Teachers, described some classes in England as ‘hideously over-crowed’, and the NUT has called for each class to be limited to 20 students or fewer by 2020.
In 1997 Labour made a commitment to reducing infant classes (5 – 7 year olds) to at most 30 pupils. This was now a legal requirement, and something Blower admits they have achieved, but claims that it’s not enough. She said that experience has proved that being in a class of 34 or 35 is not as good for students as being in a class of 27 or 28.
The schools minister, Vernon Coaker highlighted that labour has massively increased the number of adults teaching children, with 41,000 more teachers, and 120,000 more teaching assistants than 13 years ago. The government are also determined to offer more one-to-one and small group tuition to students falling behind in the ‘three Rs’ which supports the common view that the fewer students in a class, the better.