Laws: Class sizes should be cut to 15

Liberal Democrat Shadow Schools Secretary, David Laws today called for a massive boost to education spending to allow class sizes to be cut from up to 30 pupils to 15 for all five to seven year olds.

The proposal forms part of a raft of measures to be debated at the Liberal Democrats' Spring Conference in Harrogate this weekend. Other measures in the policy paper Equity and Excellence include:

· Boosting the funding of the poorest pupils to private school levels, enabling schools to provide more one-to-one tuition and extra catch-up classes

· Replacing the rigid national curriculum with a slimmed down minimum curriculum entitlement

· Radically cutting back national testing and re-investing the savings in improving literacy and numeracy

Commenting, David Laws said:

"Labour has had over a decade to close the gap between rich and poor children in this country, and it has failed.

"We know that smaller class sizes will make a real difference, making it easier for teachers to give young children more individual attention during those important first years at school.

"All children should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential, no matter where they are born.

"Our Pupil Premium will raise funding levels for disadvantaged pupils to those in the private sector. Schools will be able to use this extra cash to fund longer school days, reading and maths, and to attract the best teachers."