'Bigger classes make studies tougher'

Researchers at the London Institute of Education have carried out the study and found that large class sizes disrupt and damage the prospects of less-able students, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

 

According to them, students in big classes find it hard to concentrate and get little chance to interact with the class teacher. The researchers came to the conclusion after observing 686 pupils in dozens of schools in Britain.

 

They found adding five pupils to a class in the schools increased by 40 per cent the likelihood that less academic kids would be ‘off task’.

 

Moreover, those pupils were twice as likely to misbehave in classes of 30 — a size common in state schools — as they were in classes of 15, a size typical of the independent sector, the study revealed.

 

According to the researchers, teachers in charge of larger classes were found to spent more time trying to re-engage distracted pupils, indicating clearly that all children suffered.

 

“Bigger classes run directly counter to parents’ priorities and are not the right direction,” Michael Gove, the Shadow Education Secretary, was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.

 

Previous studies have focused on primary and infant schools because class size was thought to have minimal effects on older children. But this new research suggests otherwise.

 

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