11:32am Wednesday 4th June 2008
By David Connop Price
MORE pupils are being taught in "unlawfully large" classes in Hampshire than this time last year, new figures reveal.
There were 127 pupils, aged between five and seven, in four classes that had more than 30 pupils, according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. This was up from 31 pupils last year.
However, Hampshire County Council said none of these pupils were in schools in Basingstoke and Deane or the Hartley Wintney, Hook or Odiham area of Hart.
In total, 416 pupils in 13 classes were taught within groups of more than 30, but the Government considers instances where the school took on children in care, those with special education needs or pupils arriving during the academic year to be "lawful".
Nationally, the number of "illegal" classes rose more than 50 per cent, with 6,500 key stage one pupils in 200 oversized teaching groups.
Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "Labour came to power promising to put an end to class sizes of more than 30, and ministers claimed to have done this back in 2005.
"But now we see that thousands of pupils are being taught in classes of more than 30, and the numbers are on the rise."
The Government, which said it was taking "immediate action" to tackle the unlawful classes, admitted the class sizes rose back to 2004 levels, but said this was "massively down" on levels 10 years ago.
Schools minister Jim Knight said: "We've made dramatic improvements in bringing down infant class sizes, and almost 99 per cent of classes are in line with the law.
"There are almost 6,500 more teachers and almost 73,000 more teaching assistants in nursery and primary schools than a decade ago."
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