LABOUR has failed to meet its 1997 general election pledge that no infant pupil would be taught in a class of more than 30, despite a drop in teacher vacancies.

The promise was one of five on a high-profile pledge card presented to voters before the party swept to power.

But this week, Government statistics showed that 10,400 five, six and seven-year-olds remained in classes of 31 or more. Legislation allows some pupils to be taught in classes of greater than 30 in “exceptional circumstances”. The proportion in classes of more than 30 has dropped from 24.3 per cent in 1998 to 0.7 per cent this year.

The figures are provisional but will be seized on by Labour’s opponents.

A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said: “There’s a very small number of (infant) pupils in classes of 30 or under. In 1997, there were classes of 40 or 45. Enormous progress has been made since then.”

The class-size figures came as the Government trumpeted a 10 per cent reduction in the number of teacher vacancies across England.

In the year to January 2002, total teacher numbers increased faster than at any time in the past 20 years and class sizes fell, provisional figures revealed. But the number of unqualified teachers nearly doubled to 11,300 and accounted for much of the rise of 9,400 in teacher numbers, from 410,200 to 419,600.

The number of educational support staff also soared by 20 per cent to 26,200, an increase already in excess of the Government’s pledge for 2006.

Eamonn O’Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: “Government strategies for recruitment and retention have merely been sticking-plaster solutions.”

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, come as a second school moved to a shorter school week. Mayfield school in Portsmouth is operating a 13 per cent reduced timetable this term, rather than fill classes with “poor quality” supply teachers. More than 1,500 pupils are affected.

Bognor Regis comprehensive in Sussex has already moved to a four- day week for Years 7 and 8 to safeguard teaching for exam groups.

The figures showed vacancies, on the strict definition of a post unfilled or being held by a teacher on a contract of one term or less, falling from last year’s high of 4,980 to 4,480.

The reduction from last year is almost entirely down to a 26 per cent fall in unfilled positions in London, from 1,788 to 1,320. Outside London, the vacancy rate remained unchanged. Vacancies in five of the nine English regions were up. In Yorkshire and Humberside, the number of unfilled positions almost doubled. TES inquiries this week revealed that vacancies in Leeds, one of the largest authorities, increased from 47 to 84. Three other councils reported reductions.

There were also 6,110 temporarily-filled posts in England, occupied by teachers on contracts of between a term and a year.

The number of qualified full-time staff increased by only 1,500, the smallest rise in four years. There are now 8,000 unqualified teachers in schools who are not working towards a teaching qualification, up 3,700 on last year, while those in on-the-job training climbed by 2,000 to 3,300.

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