§ Mr. Willeyasked the Minister of Education what were the numbers of entrants to maintained and direct grant grammar schools for the years 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961; and what is the estimated figure for 1962.
§ Sir D. EcclesI estimate that the numbers of entrants to maintained and direct-grant grammar schools were about 147,000 in 1958. 142,000 in 1959, and 139,000 in 1960. These figures represent an increasing proportion of a declining age-group. The figures are not yet available from which an estimate for 1961 could be made, and any projection would be unreliable because it would have to depend on assumptions about the policies to be adopted by local education authorities as to admissions to grammar schools at a time when the relevant age-groups continued to decline.