The government has missed its target that no five to seven-year-olds should be in classes of more than 30 by September, according to figures from the Department for Education and Skills.

The class size promise was one of Labour's five key pledges before the 1997 general election.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Sheila Dainton, education policy adviser at ATL, told ePolitix.com: "This shows the danger of using arbitrary targets for real-life situations. Teachers and parents will feel seriously let down that the government has failed to achieve figures that they set themselves."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

A spokeswoman for the NUT told ePolitix.com: "Teachers will be disappointed that the class sizes targets have failed to have been met. However, they are well aware of the numbers children leaving and arriving in classes during a school year and the impact that this can have on class sizes."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Alison Johnston, senior professional officer at PAT, told ePolitix.com: "These figures are very disappointing. Teachers, parents and children know the benefits of smaller classes, which give the teacher more time to spend with each individual pupil. One of the selling points of independent schools is their smaller classes.

"We need to see continued reductions in class sizes at both primary and secondary level, with additional experienced classroom support staff.

"If the government doesn't recruit and retain more teachers, we could see class sizes rising further instead of falling."