§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give the school leaving rate at 16 years of age among Welsh pupils and the number, expressed as a percentage, entering colleges of further and higher education, at the latest available date.
§ Mr. John Stradling ThomasSixty-five per cent. of the pupils in maintained and independent schools in Wales aged 15 at the beginning of the academic year 1982–83, had left by the end of that academic year. The number of 16-year-old students enrolling at maintained colleges of further and higher education in Wales at the beginning of the academic year 1983–84, expressed as a percentage of the 28,990 pupils of that age leaving Welsh schools during the previous academic year, was 50 per cent. This includes full-time, sandwich and part-time day students.