§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he can give the figures in percentage terms of those who attended nursery school in Scotland, region by region, for each of the last 10 years; and if he will increase nursery provision as soon as economic circumstances permit.
Education authority nursery schools All pupils attending as percentage of 3 and 4-year-old population 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Borders 10.3 10.0 9.8 12.3 13.0 13.7 17.6 17.7 Central 8.5 11.5 16.6 19.5 21.8 25.6 29.0 29.6 Dumfries and Galloway 3.0 5.9 6.2 7.0 7.5 8.5 8.1 8.2 Fife 22.5 26.8 32.5 36.0 36.7 38.8 39.6 41.8 Grampian 16.5 17.7 18.2 18.3 18.0 18.7 19.7 18.6 Highland 2.9 2.9 3.4 6.4 8. 9.2 10.1 10.9 Lothian 22.4 26.8 31.1 36.2 36.8 40.6 43.2 43.6 Orkney 12.3 17.3 *— 18.5 21.1 21.4 18.5 16.8 Shetland — — — 4.5 11.7 13.2 12.3 12.0 Strathclyde 12.2 15.3 20.3 22.4 23.3 24.9 27.8 28.1 Tayside 12.7 15.8 16.6 19.0 21.0 22.5 24.0 24.1 Western Isles 6.3 12.2 17.4 19.3 17.0 18.4 20.0 19.9 Scotland 13.8 16.8 20.6 23.1 24.0 25.8 28.0 28.3 * The two existing nursery departments were closed at the end of session 1976–77 but reopened at start of session 1978–79.