§ Mr. Canavanasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will list, for each education authority in Scotland, the total school population in September 1977 and the corresponding figures for September 1976.
§ Mr. McElhone:The September 1977 school census returns submitted to the Scottish Education Department are so far incomplete. My right hon. Friend hopes nevertheless to be able to issue, by the end of this year, a statistical bulletin which will give provisional figures of primary and secondary pupils, but not nursery or special school pupils, for each education authority at September 1977. The corresponding figures for education authority schools at September 1975 and 1976 are as follows:
1975 1976 Highland 37,544 38,426 Grampian 82,567 84,238 Tayside 73,577 72,833 Fife 66,313 66,237 Lothian 131,278 130,892 Centra 53,854 53,914 Borders 17,756 17,816 Strathclyde 514,914 508,570 Dumfries and Galloway 28,228 28,075 Orkney 3,374 3,466 Shetland 3,528 3,756 Western Isles 6,134 6,269 Total 1,019,067 1,014,492