Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland No.4 : 2013 Edition

Classes and pupils

Table 3.1 shows the distribution of P1-P3 pupils in publicly funded schools by ranges of class size. The Scottish Government is committed to working with local authorities to maintain the reductions in class size in the early stages of primary education seen in recent years, and will continue with progressive reductions in the future. In particular, one of the manifesto commitments, made by the Scottish National party in 2007, was to reduce P1-P3 class sizes to 18 or less.

At September 2013, 13.6 per cent of P1-P3 pupils were taught in classes of 18 or fewer (including those taught by two teachers at all times with a class size of 36 or less), down 5.2 percentage points from 2012. The number of pupils taught in classes of 26 or more decreased from 57,424 in 2006 to a low of 32,702 in September 2009, before increasing again. In September 2013, the number of pupils taught in classes of 26 or more was 43,644 which is 25.8 per cent of pupils.

Table 3.1: Class sizes of P1-P3 pupils, 2006-2013⁽¹⁾

(1) The percentage of P1-P3 pupils in classes of 18 or fewer include two-teacher classes with 36 or less. Classes taught by two teachers at all times are treated as two classes of half the size.