§ Mr. David Steelasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) whether he will now consider recommending that education authorities should establish criteria for accepting early admission under the age of five years to public primary schools;
(2) if any of the education authorities in Scotland have established criteria for accepting early admissions under the age of five years to public primary schools;
(3) whether any departmental or other research is being undertaken to establish at what level the minimum age of commencement of attendance at public primary schools should be set;
(4) what guidance is given to local authorities about minimum ages for attendance at public primary schools;
(5) if he will list in the Official Report the school commencement dates and the appropriate latest dates of school attendance in terms of section 32 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 for each of the education authorities in Scotland.
§ Mr. YoungerThe requirement that school commencement dates should be approved by the Secretary of State was repealed by section 33 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1976 and authorities are now free to make their arrangements in the light of local circumstances, subject to the requirement that children must be given an opportunity to begin school attendance before the upper age limit of 5 years and 6 months. This requirement means in practice that any education authority operating a single commencement date in the school year must offer a place230W in primary school to some children under the age of 5—those in the age range 4½ to 5. Guidance on minimum ages for attendance was conveyed to education authorities in SED circular No. 957 dated 30 June 1976, copies of which are in the Library.
Information is not held centrally about the school commencement dates and age ranges operated by individual authorities or about criteria for early admission to primary schools at ages below their normal age range. These criteria are for authorities themselves to determine bearing in mind the school placing requirements of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended. I propose to lay regulations before the House shortly requiring authorities to make available to parents information about their school commencement arrangements including their policy or practice with regard to early admission to primary education and their priorities for early admission.
I am not aware of any research being carried out on this subject.