The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened strike action unless the government promises to reduce class sizes by 2020.
At the union’s annual conference in Manchester, members voted to prepare for action over the issue, and will now be balloted on “a rolling and escalation programme of industrial action up to and including a strike”. The union wants the government to make a decision to reduce class sizes to a maximum of 20 by 2020, and have given them 12 months to do it.
Steve Sinnott, the union’s general secretary, said that class size was a vital concern for schools, with the issue affecting not only children’s welfare, but also that of the teachers. “A campaign to reduce class size in the state sector to the levels in the independent sector would be very popular,” he said. “For conscientious teachers wanting to give youngsters individual attention, large class sizes really cause anxiety.”
The movement towards action comes after minister for schools Jim Knight said that classes of up to 70 pupils were acceptable, a statement Mr Sinnott referred to as “unacceptable”. However, Mr Knight stressed that the government’s record on class sizes was one of reducing numbers, adding that under the Labour government teacher numbers had increased by nearly 39,000, with an additional increase of more than 100,000 of teaching assistants who help reduce teachers’ workload.