Britain 'has failed to cut primary class sizes'

Ministers have failed to cut class sizes despite spending billions of pounds on schools, a major international report found today.

Only Turkey, Japan and Korea have more children in a typical primary school class than the UK, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.

Parents are now paying more than ever to send their children to private schools where classes are half the size, the study suggested. The findings came in the OECD's annual verdict on the education systems of 30 countries, which showed the UK falling down key league tables as other nations improved at a faster pace.

OECD education analyst Andreas Schleicher, who prepared the Education At A Glance report, said Britain had invested increasing amounts of national wealth in education after starting from a "low base".

But he added: "Despite the above average spending per student, class sizes in primary schools remain very large." With 24.5 children in every primary class, the UK has "one of the largest average class sizes at this level of education", the report said.

"Only Japan, Korea and Turkey have larger classes, while in 14 OECD countries there are 20 or fewer students per primary-level class."

The average was 21.5. The report warned of a yawning gulf between private schools - with 12.3 children in each class.

"The UK stands out as the OECD country with the largest difference in class sizes between public and private institutions,"-it said. Before the 1997 election Labour promised to cut class sizes and then introduced new laws banning schools from teaching five to sevenyearolds in groups of more than 30.

Head of education for the National Union of Teachers, John Bangs, said government spending on schools looked "fragile" amid fears of a recession.

He called on Gordon Brown to commit a much larger share of GDP to schools to cut class sizes.

Britain also slipped from 13th place to 21st in the league table of countries ranked on how many 16-year-olds have the equivalent of five good GCSEs. The UK has one of the highest school dropout rates, with 24 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds not in education, and 5.3 per cent also unemployed.

A spokesman for the Department for Children said ministers were making steady progress cutting class sizes. "Over the past 10 years we have seen steadily smaller class sizes and a better adult-pupil ratio," he said.