§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the number of school leavers last year who left school without any academic qualification for each region, respectively; what percentages they were of school leavers in those regions; and what were the figures for each of the last 10 years, respectively.
§ Mr. YoungerThe numbers and percentages of pupils who left school in sessions 1974–75 to 1978–79—the latest year for which information is available—and who held no 261W SCE qualifications are shown in the following tables for each region. Comparable figures for sessions before 1974–75 are not available.
My Department collects no information about the small number of pupils who may leave school possessing only
Number of leavers with no SCE qualifications Region 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 Borders 436 462 436 438 521 Central 1,070 1,491 1,396 1,464 1,476 Dumfries and Galloway 790 890 824 793 735 Fife 1,773 1,701 1,703 1,869 1,748 Grampian 1,955 2,025 1,958 2,050 2,095 Highland 727 861 802 776 845 Lothian 3,815 4,279 3,884 4,031 4,029 Strathclyde 17,956 17,520 17,023 16,826 16,153 Tayside 1,899 2,228 1,997 1,990 1,915 Orkney 75 86 77 69 90 Shetland 56 62 42 59 61 Western Isles 208 136 153 141 132 Scotland 30,760 31,741, 30,295 30,506 29,800
Number of leavers with no SCE qualifications as a percentage of all school leavers Region 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 Borders 30 31 29 30 33 Central 26 32 30 30 32 Dumfries and Galloway 31 33 32 30 29 Fife 32 30 30 32 30 Grampian 27 27 26 27 27 Highland 25 27 26 25 25 Lothian 31 33 31 31 31 Strathclyde 40 39 37 36 36 Tayside 28 32 29 29 28 Orkney 28 33 28 23 28 Shetland 23 24 15 19 19 Western Isles 45 29 34 26 24 Scotland 35 35 33 33 32