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BIG EARNERS COME FROM SMALL CLASSES

Children going into smaller classes for the new school term will gain financially for the rest of their lives, says a study by a leading economic think tank.

Class size – measured as the ratio of pupils to teachers – has a significant effect on future earnings at work, and the bigger the class a child is in the less they will be paid. It seems that smaller classes help children enjoy lessons more and encourage them to stay on at school.

The research – by the Centre for Economic Policy (CERP) – is one of the first studies to provide a direct link between the quality of schooling and children’s likelihood to stay on after 16.

It concludes that cutting the size of a class by just five pupils directly leads to a rise in average earnings over a working lifetime of £3, 415 a year for boys and £2,445 annually for girls.

The finding, said Dr Christian Dustmann of University College London and the CERP, is “very robust.”

The Government has committed itself to reducing class sizes since 1997 and has introduced a 30-pupil maximum for primary classes. Many of the more popular schools, however, are getting round this by hiring classroom assistants to raise the staff to pupil ratio and allow more children to be squeezed in.

The Department for Education has recognised there may be a link between school quality and career decisions by 16 year olds. In 1998 White Paper Learning to Succeed, suggested: “Young people can be turned off higher education by poor experiences at any stage of their lives, but critical points usually occur between the ages of 13 and 19.”

THE OBSERVER, Sept. 1, 2002