§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many(a) 16-year-olds and (b) 17-year-olds were in full-time education at school or college in the autumn term of each year since 1985. [3592]
§ Mr. PaiceI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him in a letter on 21 October 1996 which gave student numbers for the census dates for the academic years requested. A copy of this letter is available in the Library.
Information is not collected on a term by term basis, the census date is in January for schools and in November for further education colleges. However, a new survey which is calculated each September shows the number of pupils in maintained schools at the start of the autumn term from 1994. This information is not available for colleges.
Maintained schools (including maintained special schools) Thousands September 1994 January 1995 September 1995 January 1996 Pupils aged 16 160.3 153.4 170.3 163.2 Pupils aged 17 109.5 106.9 112.7 111.0