Classroom Quality
28. We must recognise that teachers, too often, have to teach too many periods and too many pupils. We can and we must act to help teachers to raise standards:
-first, we shall provide more teachers for all standard-size schools-up to three more in each primary school, one a year from September 1993; and up to two more in each secondary school, one a year from 1994;
-secondly, we shall reduce the size of school classes to 35 pupils each, starting in September 1993 with primary one, and extending it to higher levels a year at a time;
-thirdly, we shall ensure that, wherever possible, all new primary schools operate on a whole-day basis from September 1993—in addition to the 39 existing bisessional schools which are already due to become whole-day over the next five years.
29. As a result of these measures, there will be about 780 additional teachers next year and a further 1 420 by 1997. This increase will reduce the ratio of pupils to teachers:
-from 27 to 24 in primary schools, and
from 22 to 20 in secondary schools,
between now and 1997.
30. Our teachers are at the heart of the education system, and so we will be taking early action to improve their training and education. As soon as possible in the new year, we will set up a Provisional Governing Council for the proposed new Institute of Education and make other interim improvements. The Council will be given the task of planning the Institute's development into an independent body offering certificate and, in due course, degree qualifications. And we will encourage the tertiary institutions to develop courses to enable serving teachers to upgrade their qualifications. The Open Learning Institute has a major contribution to make to this process, and we propose to provide a capital grant of $150 million to help it acquire its own building. We shall also be taking steps to increase the proportion of qualified teachers in kindergartens by improving the fee remission scheme.
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