We have seen a remarkable improvement over the last few years

Estelle Morris, Education Secretary

She described the latest figures as "excellent news".

"Reducing class sizes has been a key priority for this government," she said.

"We have seen a remarkable improvement over the last few years.

"Infants are also benefitting from smaller average classes - the average size of an infant class is now 24.4 compared to 25.7 in September 1998."

Ms Morris said the government had spent �620m in trying to reach the target - enough to pay for up to 6,000 extra teachers and 2,000 new classrooms.

"It is absolutely right that the limit is flexible, allowing the entry of additional children in certain circumstances," she said

"The alternative would be to require schools to reorganise their classes each time an additional pupil was admitted which would be unwelcome and disruptive."

Opposition parties

The Liberal Democrats say the government's pledge on infant classes has acted as "a smokescreen" for the largest secondary school class sizes for 20 years.

The party's education spokesman, Phil Willis said: "Labour's pre-election claim that the class size pledge would be met rings hollow for the 8,000 children still in large classes.

"There has been an increase in mixed aged classes as headteachers have had been forced to apply the '30 or bust' rule to their classes.

"Whilst the general movement towards smaller infant classes is to be welcomed, the government must tackle the largest second class sizes for a twenty years."

The shadow education secretary Damian Green said: "These figures disguise a severe crisis in some infant classrooms.

"Only last week it was revealed that seven local authorities reported classes of over 30.

"With the problem of teacher shortages getting worse, they will find that the strain on infant classes is likely to increase in the year ahead."

Breaking the law

Where schools are breaking the law by having classes of more than 30 pupils, the department for education says if a parent complained it would up to the school to resolve the issue in the first instance.

If the school did nothing the parent could go to the local education authority and ultimately to the Education Secretary Estelle Morris.

But there have been more complaints from parents about the side effect of reducing classes - that they cannot get their children into an infant school because it is "full".

Ministers say they have tried to create as many extra places as possible in popular schools, and deliberately not expanded places in schools where parents do not want to send their children.