School class sizes in spotlight says councillor
A Craigneuk councillor has put the spotlight on class sizes in his ward, and is calling for government intervention.
Conservative elected member Nathan Wilson, who represents Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, is concerned by the increasing number of primary school classes with more than 18 pupils.
Councillor Wilson says the Scottish Government is failing to achieve its target of all classes within primary one to three to have no more than 18 pupils.
However, figures from North Lanarkshire Council show that during the 2018-2019 school year 55 per cent of these classes were bigger than this, and this has now increased to more than two thirds of classes in the ward.
Every one of Motherwell’s Knowetop Primary seven P1-P3 classes have more than 18 pupils, while at Berryhill Primary in Craigneuk more than half of the classes are bigger than the target size.
A total of 21 out of 31 classes in the ward are above target size in 2019/20. In the previous year the figure was 18 out of 33.
The pledge to reduce class sizes was published in the SNP manifesto ahead of the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.
Councillor Wilson said: “The SNP promised as far back as their 2007 manifesto for Holyrood that all primary one to three classes in Scotland would have 18 pupils or fewer.
“Thirteen years after the SNP made this commitment, nearly 70 per cent of all such classes in Motherwell South East schools are above this size.
“Quite clearly, the aspiration set by the SNP is nowhere near towards being achieved and the total number of classes with more than 18 pupils has risen sharply in comparison with the previous school year. For Knowetop Primary School in Motherwell, every single primary one to three class is of a larger size than 18 pupils.
“The inability to meet their own class size ambition for schools in my ward is yet another example of how the SNP have failed the education system in Scotland despite it allegedly being the party’s number one priority.
“It simply isn’t good enough for the SNP to make a promise to parents on class sizes and then completely fail to achieve it.”
Agnes Magowan is an SNP councillor in the same ward as Councillor Wilson.
She said: “The Scottish Government are investing record amounts in our schools to close the attainment gap - £120 million going direct to schools in 2019 alone.
“Extra resources have been provided to all local councils, allowing spending on education to increase in real terms for the past three years - up by £189m in 2018/19.
“The Scottish Government are looking at the broader view of education making sure that attainment in literacy and numeracy are improving and teacher numbers are at a record high. Education in North Lanarkshire is in safe hands.
“Maybe if the Tories weren’t propping up the PFI loving, financially incompetent Labour party we could make progress in class sizes.”