FACT: Smaller classes DON’T always mean better results

“It might be politically popular to argue for smaller classes, but there is no cross- national evidence to show that reducing class size is the best avenue towards improving results. Instead, reducing class size can mean diverting funds that would have been better spent elsewhere – such as higher pay for better teachers. In fact, the highest-performing education systems in PISA tend to prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes; whenever they have to choose between smaller classes and investing in their teachers, they go for the latter.”

ANDREAS SCHLEICHER ‘WORLD CLASS How to build a 21st-century school system’