Class sizes in Bradford are the same as elsewhere in the country - but some education experts say the numbers are still not good enough.

Class size figures just released place Bradford in the middle of national statistics and numbers for Yorkshire.

Bradford's primary schools have an average class size of 26.1 pupils, with just 1.7 per cent of students taught in classes of more than 30. This is slightly higher than the national average of 25.2 in a class.

Secondary schools fair better with 21.8 pupils in the average class compared to national figures of 21.9.

These are very similar to numbers in Leeds schools.

For students coping with assessments, the picture is slightly different.

Bradford's Key Stage One pupils, aged about seven years old, are taught in classes of 26.1 which is above the national average of 25.2. For Key Stage Two students aged about ten years old, there are less in Bradford classes, 26.7, than the national average of 27.4.

A spokesman for Education Bradford said: "A lot of hard work has gone into reducing class sizes in the district. Smaller classes mean teachers have fewer children on which to concentrate and this can only be good for schools.

"In 2000, the average class size in primary schools in Bradford was 27.6 and 22.6 in secondary schools."

Frizinghall Primary School has an average of 24 pupils per class.

Head teacher Pauline Chilvers feels that smaller classes are paramount.

"We have more time to spend with individual pupils building up a special relationship with them which is obviously conducive to learning," she said.

Education and Skills Secretary Estelle Morris said: "There are 9,400 more teachers in schools since this time last year. The increase is the biggest year-on-year rise for twenty years."

But Ian Murch, secretary of the Bradford branch of the National Union of Teachers, believed that the district's schools needed to be better than the national average because of levels of deprivation and numbers of pupils with English as a second language. He said: "Bradford gets a lot more money than the average education authority so we would expect to have smaller classes sizes here.

"The fact that they have not shows that Bradford is not spending enough money. The authority underspends by about £11 million compared to similar authorities."

Buttershaw Upper School head teacher John Midgley has an average class size of 18.

He said: "Our average size is smaller because we get additional funding. The optimum class size is still too big in this country but it is difficult because we offer a choice of subjects. So some classes are a lot bigger than others."

Councillor David Ward, executive member for education, believed that progress had been made in schools but there was still further to go.

He said: "We are thereabouts on the national average and that is probably a reflection of the educational funding which has gone into schools in the last three years after years of under-funding."