 Fiona Hyslop said she was serious about class sizes |
Scottish councils will receive funding to employ 300 more nursery and primary teachers from August in a bid to reduce class sizes, the government has said. However, the SNP administration did not make a firm commitment to its manifesto pledge of keeping class sizes to no more than 18 in primaries 1-3.
Former education minister Hugh Henry accused the government of failing to deliver on election promises.
He claimed that ministers' plans were lacking in detail.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop also said the entitlement for three and four-year-olds to pre-school education would be increased to 475 hours a year from the autumn.
She said the government was serious about cutting class sizes, adding: "We are sorting out the problems the last government caused and are happy to do so.
"This government is moving fast to start delivering on class sizes."
Ministers will take on the �9m annual cost of employing the additional teachers and Ms Hyslop added that postgraduate teacher training places would also increase by at least 250.
However, Mr Henry, Labour education spokesman, said: "We have an administration which I think has over-promised. It will under-deliver and I think we are going to be left with a lot of disappointed people across Scotland."
'No targets'
He claimed the SNP manifesto had been "very explicit" when it promised class sizes of 18 or less for the first three years of primary school, adding: "There were no ifs, there were no buts."
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Jeremy Purvis said education had been "down the list" of debates and priorities of the new administration.
"The cabinet secretary simply cannot get away with coming to this parliament without targets," he added.
Murdo Fraser, the Conservative education spokesman, said his party would be "sympathetic" to smaller class sizes, but added: "We certainly don't think that should be the be all and end all of education policy.
"If you speak to many teachers the reality is they would rather be teaching a class of 30 well behaved youngsters than a class of 20 where they had two or three who were poorly behaved."
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If you speak to many teachers the reality is they would rather be teaching a class of 30 well behaved youngsters than a class of 20 where they had two or three who were poorly behaved
