By Grant Smith, education reporter

SCOTTISH SCHOOL census figures show the scale of the task facing education chiefs in Tayside and Fife in cutting class sizes to a maximum of 18 in the first three years of primary school.

Of the four councils in the area only Perth and Kinross managed to beat the national average, while Dundee had only a relative handful in small classes.

Nationally, only 12% of classes at P1 to P3 met the Scottish Government’s target. Despite that target being a manifesto pledge, the SNP administration have backed away from saying when they expect it to be achieved. Yesterday’s figures certainly prove that it will not be soon.

Perth and Kinross has 548 pupils in 18-maximum classes, or 13.1%. However, the authority has many rural schools where classes tend to be small anyway. Angus has 402 (11.3%) of its P1 to P3 pupils in classes that meet the target, with 1184 (10.7%) Fife pupils in small classes. Again, both authorities have a substantial number of rural schools.

By contrast, Dundee is a completely urban area, which may account for only 185 of its 3953 P1 to P3 pupils in classes that meet the official target, working out at 4.7% of the total.

Councils have been trying to reduce class sizes within the limits imposed by the finances available to pay for extra teachers and the availability of extra classrooms.

In Dundee, for example, extra funding allowed 10 more classes than expected to be created last year, meaning the city council’s education department was able to cut class sizes to a maximum of 25 for the youngest pupils.

Fife councillors recently agreed to increase education spending in 2008-09 by £9.6 million, with the intention that some would go to cutting class sizes.

The Scottish Government has admitted it has made no estimate of the number of extra teachers local authorities would require. In answer to a parliamentary question in November by Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen, ministers were also unable to suggest a figure for how much extra funding would be needed.

The school census suggests that councils have been putting most effort into bringing down the size of P1 classes. In Perth and Kinross the average P1 class has 21.1 pupils, compared with 25.3 at P2 and 26.1 at P3. Angus, Dundee and Fife all have a similar pattern.

Another key finding is that the overall state school population in Scotland continues to drop, down 11,000 year-on-year and falling below 700,000 for the first time.

Perth and Kinross has dropped just 2.8% to 17,977 pupils across the primary, secondary and special sectors since the start of the decade.

Over the same period Angus has lost 710 pupils (4.3%) and now has 15,813, while Fife’s total has fallen by 4495 (8.5%) to 48,700. Dundee has seen one of the biggest drops, down 2603 (12.7%) to 17,859, although that is largely because the city’s population has been falling for many years.

The recent influx of eastern Europeans is also showing up markedly in many areas. Among non-English speakers, Polish was the main language spoken at home for pupils in Angus and Perth and Kinross. Polish was also in the top three in Dundee and Fife.