Dundee’s education chief has said “austerity cuts” are to blame for the revelation that city classrooms are getting fuller.
Just 2.8% of pupils in primaries one to three in the city are being taught in classes with 18 or fewer children.
The situation is 10 times worse than it was only two years ago and is nowhere near the Scottish average of 12.9%.
It comes just a few weeks after the council revealed plans for a huge shake-up of Dundee schools that would see Menzieshill High closed, with pupils there going to the new Harris Academy, and a number of other changes to the school estate.
Now, the city council’s education convener, Stewart Hunter, has admitted the local authority must do better.
Mr Hunter said: “We would like our position to be a lot better than it is. We wanted to not just achieve the national average but to be above it. Sadly, that has not happened.
“Unfortunately, the way things are with austerity cuts, we have had to make the decision to go with bigger classes in Dundee.
“Budget constraints meant we had to take this decision against our wishes because the alternative would have been worse from an educational point of view.
“We would like to be in a position where we could say we were trying to improve, but that is unlikely.
“We are in challenging times and unfortunately there would appear to be more cuts on the way.”
Scottish Government statistics showed that last year 9.8% of pupils were in classes of 18 pupils or fewer, while in 2012 that figure was 28.5%.
In 2007, the SNP made a manifesto commitment to cut class sizes between primaries 1-3 to 18 or fewer.
David Baxter, branch secretary of the teaching union EIS, says children in the most deprived areas will be hit hardest by bigger class sizes.
He said: “The fact that there has been such a significant rise in class sizes in Dundee is very disappointing.
“The socio-economic situation in Dundee means it is the most vulnerable who will suffer. The EIS supports lower class sizes and we will be looking for a return to that.”
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “As pupil numbers decrease, as does the need for teachers. In terms of pupil ratio, Dundee remains the third best in mainland Scotland.
“At the point of the survey, we were advertising for a number of teaching posts across the city.”