Minister �determined� to push ahead with reductions in pupil numbers

The SNP will press ahead with targets to reduce primary class sizes, despite a continuing row with the largest local authorities over the cost of implementing the election pledge.

In an interview for the Sunday Herald, education secretary Fiona Hyslop said she was "determined" to see P1-3 classes down to 18 pupils per teacher. The cabinet minister attacked Edinburgh and Glasgow city councils for "contriving" huge bills for the plan, and said there was a clear consensus about the benefits of size reduction.

"Everyone agrees; teachers, parents and pupils all prefer to have smaller classes," she said. "It's evidence-based policy, informed by international research. Smaller classes help with behavioural issues. If you can get the basics right at early years, it helps those in secondary schools have a better opportunity. We're determined to build on the class size reduction agenda."

However, Edinburgh City Council has now estimated the cost of reducing early-years class sizes in the capital at more than £41 million, maintaining, along with counterparts at Glasgow City Council, that the policy is unworkable.

Marilyne MacLaren, education leader on the SNP/LibDem council, said trying to meet Scottish governement targets "would cause significant problems".

"It might sound like a nice idea but the implementation is so, so difficult," she said. "We just can't do it. With the best will in the world, the Scottish government couldn't fund it right across Scotland."

In a report due to come before the city's education committee in the next few weeks, Edinburgh's council staff estimate 60% of their schools would have difficulty accommodating extra space or new buildings for classes.

They claim many Victorian buildings cannot be expanded, and playgrounds are too small for temporary units. Creating new classrooms would cost £34m, and another £7.5m would be needed to pay for 206 additional teachers.

Glasgow City Council has also made clear it will have difficulty meeting targets without a massive injection of cash - another £45m - and Labour leader Stephen Purcell has said the government will need to use legislation to enforce the changes.

Citing the extra £40m already released in the first 100 days of the SNP administration to tackle class sizes, Hyslop was scathing about the obstinacy of the two biggest city councils. "I find it odd they say it's unworkable when they've not had discussions with us yet about how we make it work," she said.

"I suspect it's an early shot at requesting more money. It would be very premature for any council to start giving a budget bill to the national government that they've yet to negotiate on."

Referring to the extra £2.1m recently released to Glasgow to help deliver class-size reduction, the education minister said: "If they don't want it, I'm sure there would be other councils more than happy to take on extra funding."

A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last week showed class sizes in the UK are still among the highest in the developed world. However, Wendy Alexander has already hinted at a change in emphasis for Labour, talking about personalised education and literacy specialists to improve standards.

Rhona Brankin, her new shadow education secretary, said Labour was no longer dogmatic about class sizes. "The SNP has taken a rather simplistic approach," she said. "There is some evidence to show reducing class sizes in the early years can make a difference, but many other things make a difference as well."

Hyslop pledged the SNP would deliver an improvement in teacher training to ensure enough high-quality new recruits for more primary classes. The government provided £9m for an extra 300 teaching positions during the summer to address the problems many newly-qualified probationers had in finding work.

"We inherited a mess," she said. "A lot of that was down to how councils dealt with the last government's targets. There were workforce planning issues which led to a large number of teachers not having a job to go to. It is our understanding that many councils did include teaching posts for their efficiency gains they had to make. It put a squeeze on jobs. We've moved swiftly to try to fix that."

Despite recent difficulties, Hyslop is keen to work closely with local education authorities to establish agreements over class-size reduction.

A timetable for targets is uncertain until the Scottish government gets financial allocations from Westminster, but th education secretary said the SNP did not wish to impose regulations councils were unhappy with.

"The pace and scale and timing of the delivery of reductions will be dependent on the discussions with different councils," she said.

Gordon Matheson, head of education at Glasgow City Council, remains unconvinced of SNP plans. He said: "I suspect the government doesn't have the money to redeem this pledge and, if it did, we would want to do different things with it, rather than just a blanket reduction in class sizes. We have other robust educational priorities to spend it on."

He added: "We're not playing party political games here. Education is too important for that."