Extra staff to cut infant class sizes

MOVES TO limit the pupil/teacher ratio for four year olds in primary school reception classes are expected to be announced today.

Classroom assistants will help cut the ratio of children to teachers to 15 to one, in response to concerns at the size of reception classes, where class sizes can be as high as 30.

Margaret Hodge, the minister responsible for early years education, is expected to announce the changes which come after a review of education for the under fives.

The Government has already fulfilled its pledge to offer a nursery place for all four year olds whose parents want one, with a variety of schools, private, state and voluntary nurseries providing places.

But nursery and "pre-school" campaigners have been concerned at the rapid expansion of school-based nurseries since the introduction of nursery vouchers by the Conservatives.

The vouchers were abolished in one of Labour's first acts after the last election, but pre-school campaigners claim the trend has continued.

Hundreds of voluntary playgroups and pre-schools have closed and hundreds more are said to be on the brink because, campaigners claim, schools have opened up reception classes to nursery age children to secure extra funding.

Earlier this year the Pre-School Learning Alliance, which represents 18,000 pre-school groups, warned that 1,700 were in danger of closure this year, on top of 1,500 closures in 1998.

Ministers offered the groups grants worth pounds 500,000 to stave off widespread closures and announced a wide-ranging review of the sector.

The regulations to be announced today are expected to move towards a level playing field between the different nursery "settings".

Under the Children Act, private and voluntary nurseries and playgroups are required to provide one adult for every eight children. But the adult- to-child ratio in state nurseries is two to 26 and in school reception classes there are no rules governing staffing levels.

Sir Christopher Ball, author of a report on nursery education in 1994, said: "I would genuinely welcome this as a move towards reasonable and appropriate class sizes."

But Theresa May, the Shadow Education Secretary, accused the Government of "floundering" and claimed "too many children are being taken into school too early".

She said: "Labour has failed to achieve their election pledge of smaller class sizes. Nursery class sizes have risen over the past two years as have average class sizes overall.

The new regulations will fuel the debate over whether children are being pushed into formal education too young.

Government "early learning goals" for three, four and five year olds say children should start learning to read, write and count as young as three and should have mastered the basics by the end of their first year at school.

Ministers argue that all children deserve the structured nursery education regarded as the norm in middle-class homes.