MORE than eight out of 10 placing requests are granted by local authorities, according to figures released by the Scottish Executive.
In primary schools, 90 per cent of requests were met between August 2001 and July last year, against 76 per cent in secondary. The major reason for refusal remains overcrowding.
A total of 31,872 parents submitted applications, a figure that is up 5 per cent on the previous year but down by 1 per cent on the year before that.
Primary school requests run at almost twice those in the secondary sector - 20,492 against 11,051.
After changes to regulations, 2,165 parents decided to defer their children’s entry to P1. Many continue to believe that their children are too young at four and a half to join mainstream classes and prefer an extra year at nursery.
* There are around 413,500 pupils in 2,261 primaries and 317,000 pupils in 387 secondaries, according to Scottish Executive statistics in the September 2002 census. The number of primary pupils has fallen by 1.6 per cent.
