IT doesn't take an academic genius to know that class size makes a difference in education. And Lancashire's record on cramped classrooms is not one to boast.

In fact, it's your young ones who have made up the statistics that put Lancashire at the top of a league of shame for oversized classes.

Nearly half of primary school children in East Lancashire are taught in classes that have more than 30 pupils.

To be blunt, there's no where worse in England.

Talk about the subject immediately conjures up pictures of children fighting for seats as they cram into a room.

Not so. The problem is not a physical one and is far deeper. One word sums it up - cash.

New Labour is promising new action and is vowing to reduce the number of pupils in classes for five, six and seven year olds

Although head teachers have welcomed the plans, they are being cautious of the Government's moves to make overcrowding a thing of the past.

One primary in Blackburn, St Gabriel's in Pleckgate, has seven classes with an average of 36 pupils per class.

Harry Sharples has been head at the school for 20 years after starting his teaching career there in 1967. He's seen huge changes in education, not least oversized classrooms. But he's warning - "Cut classes and you'll cut funding."

Harry said: "We have 36 children in most of our classes and that's not uncommon in this part of the world.

"Because schools are now funded by a fixed amount for each child, we're obliged to have large classes to cover our costs.

"I'm concerned the new government is saying it is committed to reducing class sizes to 30 yet on the the other hand the Chancellor says over the next two years they will follow Conservative expenditure in the public sector. The two do not marry up.

"If we cut six children out of each class we'd lose £7,000 per class. Multiply that by seven classes and that means we'd have to lose teaching staff and at the end of the day would be no better off."

The school was forced to axe a teacher recently because of cuts in its budget.

"The part-time teacher we had to lose was a special needs support teacher and she was able to work with small groups. We were able then to break down class sizes.

"If our school was funded to the average Lancashire figure per pupil, it would give me another £42,000 in my budget to sufficiently employ at least one more teacher.

"The teacher/pupil ratio is of great concern. Because of oversized classrooms there's a reduction in the amount of attention a child gets and from a teacher's point of view there is a greater work load. It's placing them under strain." St Gabriel's budget this year was £321,000. Out of that, £291,506 is swallowed up in staffing costs.

Harry said: "The most important resource is teaching staff and that's the most expensive area. Schools have no spare cash to help reduce class sizes. We're asked to deliver more and more yet resources are not increased to help us. It's a catch 22 situation."

Labour aims to phase out the Assisted Place Scheme - which uses taxpayers' cash to send bright children from 'ordinary' families to independent schools - to free a total of £100 million by the year 2000 to cut class sizes.

Local NUT members had warned that urgent action was needed to stop the spiralling trend of big classes, with some even suggesting a figure as low as 24 per class.

"Our school is full to capacity but the majority of schools can't just cut classes. This is a massive undertaking by Labour. We can only wait and see if it works," he added.

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