Class size limits 'as early as autumn'

NEW regulations limiting class sizes in the first year of primary school could be in place this autumn, the Scottish government said yesterday.

Ministers have launched a consultation on regulations which aim to introduce a legal limit of 25 for primary one classes.

The consultation – which the government is legally obliged to carry out – comes six months after former education secretary Fiona Hyslop announced the measure.

Subject to any issues being raised in the consultation, the regulations should come into effect in the autumn, meaning they will be in place for councils in time for the school placement process ahead of pupils starting school in August 2011.

Despite the SNP's pledge to cut class sizes to 18 in primaries one to three, the current legal limit on the number of pupils allowed in each class is 30.