Million more school places needed by end of decade

SCHOOLS Minister David Laws has told MPs that by the end of this decade the country will have needed to create a million more school places to meet a significant and sustained increase in the pupil population.

He also said that pressure on school places could have led to the small increase in the ratio of children to teachers in infant school classrooms that has been seen across the country.

Mr Laws told the Education Select Committee the biggest rising birth rate seen since the post war baby boom and an increase in immigration in some areas have led to the demand on places.

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And he also criticised the last Labour Government for failing to respond to the “bulge in population” which he said had been apparent since 2003. However, he said the Department for Education had not seen any sign that the situation was harming the education experience of children.

The Liberal Democrat Schools Minister said that over the course of the current Parliament the schools system will need to find an extra 417,000 places, 382,000 of which are in primary schools. He said this would “logically” mean that extra places would also be needed in secondary schools in future as these pupils move through the system.

He said around 500,000 extra places would be needed from 2015 to 2021.

Mr Laws said that since 2010 the coalition Government had created around 190,000 places. He said this had helped to reverse a trend under the last Government in which local authorities were encouraged to reduce the number of surplus places. He also said that since taking office the Government had cut the cost of school building programmes. The coalition is providing Basic Need funding to help local authorities meet the needs in their areas and also has a Priority Schools Building Programme which is aimed at ensuring that sites in the worst condition are rebuilt or redeveloped.

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Mr Laws said the Government was now able to build new schools at a cost of around £9,500 per pupil at primary level and £12,500 per pupil at secondary.

Last month town hall bosses warned the country was facing a schools places crisis.

The Local Government Association published figures which showed that most of the 15 education authority areas in Yorkshire were set to see demand for places outnumber the current provision by 2016. It suggested more than 15,000 new places could be needed across the region within three years.

Last month Labour also claimed the number of overcrowded infant classes of more than 30 pupils in Yorkshire has more than doubled since the coalition came to power. The party said there are now 373 oversized classes, up from 167 three years ago, meaning 11,740 children in their early years of primary school are being taught in classes of more than 30 compared with 5,240 in 2010.