Rise in pupils in ‘supersize’ classes

The number of primary school pupils in classes of more than 30 has risen by more than a third in six years.

Labour has blamed “supersized” classes in Scotland’s primary schools for the continuing attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils.

Limiting class sizes in the first three years at primary to 18 was a key pledge in the SNP’S 2007 manifesto.

When a majority SNP government came into power in 2011 the number of primary pupils in classes of 31 or larger was 31,842.

This rose to 45,843 in 2017, a 44 per cent increase, and is up by more than 1,000 on the previous year at 44,667.

In 2011, new Scottish Government legislation came into force limiting P1 class sizes to 25. Since then the number of P1 pupils in a class size of 26 or more has dropped by more than 90 per cent from 6,896 in 2010 to 631 in 2017.

Scottish Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray said: “The pledge to cut classroom sizes was key in the SNP forming a government a decade ago – but that promise has been smashed to pieces.”

A Scottish Government spokeswomansaid:“there are more primary teachers than at any time since 2007 and the ratio of pupils to teachers is at its lowest since 2013.”