15 April 2005
Class sizes in Scottish primary schools have risen for the first time since devolution, according to figures from the Scottish Executive.
The average primary class has increased from 23.7 pupils in 2003 to 23.9 last September. The Executive has pledged to reduce class sizes.
A spokesman for the Educational Institute of Scotland, the country's largest teaching union, said: 'We are now getting to the stage where we would be expecting the Executive to be delivering, and yet we are seeing the trend getting worse.'
The Executive insisted that the figures were 'a blip' in an otherwise downward trend. The average in 1997 was 24.9.
PFapr2005
