§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the proportion of under five-year-olds in Scotland who currently attend nursery classes provided by local education authorities in each island and local authority region; and what the figure was in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. LangThe figures for nursery schools and departments at each September for the last five years for which information is available is set out in the table.
Percentage of 3 and 4 year olds in education authority nursery schools 1983 1984 1987 1988 11989 Borders 16.6 15.2 16.6 18.7 19.1 Central 31.2 31.2 37.8 39.2 41.3 Dumfries and Galloway 7.9 8.7 12.7 15.8 17.9 Fife 42.2 42.8 48.5 50.4 49.6 Grampian 18.6 18.6 21.2 24.0 30.5 Highland 10.3 10.5 11.6 12.3 12.2 Lothian 43.8 45.3 47.8 47.9 47.3 Strathclyde 27.7 27.6 29.6 30.1 31.3 Tayside 23.0 22.6 25.1 26.5 31.3 Orkney 17.9 18.3 18.3 20.7 21.5 Shetland 11.1 13.6 17.7 18.1 19.4 Western Isles 16.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Scotland Total 28.0 28.2 30.8 31.9 33.5 1 Provisional