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Lib Dem pledge to cut class sizes Lib Dem pledge to cut class sizes
(30 minutes later)
The Lib Dems say they would help English infant schools reduce class sizes to 15 - half the current maximum.The Lib Dems say they would help English infant schools reduce class sizes to 15 - half the current maximum.
They say they would fund it by ending the Child Trust Fund, which gives every child £250 when they are 18, and by redirecting other public spending.They say they would fund it by ending the Child Trust Fund, which gives every child £250 when they are 18, and by redirecting other public spending.
Leader Nick Clegg said education would be his party's biggest financial priority in their election manifesto.Leader Nick Clegg said education would be his party's biggest financial priority in their election manifesto.
The policy could require an extra 38,000 teachers - currently about 30,000 qualify as teachers each year.The policy could require an extra 38,000 teachers - currently about 30,000 qualify as teachers each year.
The party would allow all infant schools that want to to reduce class sizes for five to seven-year-olds to 15 - it made a similar pledge in 2005, to reduce class sizes to 20 by scrapping the Child Trust Fund.
'Sensible call'
Mr Clegg said cutting class sizes in early years would cost about £500m - the amount currently allocated to the Child Trust Fund.
"There is no point giving someone £250 at the age of 18 if you haven't done what we need to to give young children ... the start they need in school," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME More from Today programme
"At a time when we are pouring hundreds of billions of pounds into the pockets of bankers, to find half a billion pounds to give all our children the start they need in life seems to me to be a sensible call."
Among proposals published on Thursday, after what the party describes as its biggest review of education for ten years, are reducing class sizes and paying more to those schools dealing with children from difficult backgrounds and poor families.
Mr Clegg told the BBC it would give them the same chances as children going to fee-paying schools and would allow teachers to give one-to-one tuition and Saturday morning classes.
He said children from disadvantaged children benefited from a "lift" early on.
He told the BBC: "All the evidence shows that if you are a bright but poor child you will be overtaken in school by the age of six or seven by a less bright but wealthier child and after that age the gap opens up ever wider. That is wrong. That has to change."