Parents pushing harder at school boundaries

The publication of the figures follows a series of high-profile court cases, which saw parents successfully take councils to court to get their children into a school outside their area.

There were 29,892 requests received from councils in 2008-09 – up 4.9 per cent on the 28,498 recorded the previous year.

Previously, the numbers had been gradually falling from a high of 31,685 in 2001-02.

A total of 83.8 per cent of these requests were granted in 2008-09, up from 82.3 per cent the previous year.

The government is looking at imposing a legal cap of 25 pupils in Primary 1 classes in an attempt to cut down on the number of parents taking legal action to try to get their children into the school of their choice.

Currently, the legal limit in Primary 1 classes stands at 30. This statutory limit has enabled parents to successfully challenge councils that attempted to set their own lower caps, by arguing that more places are available than the councils have said.

For example, South Lanarkshire Council has lost 19 legal challenges in the past year from parents in this position.

The increasing number of legal actions was reflected in yesterday's figures, which showed that parents had taken 39 cases to court this year compared with eight, five and ten in the previous three years.

And the number of placing requests for Primary 1 rose from 11,535 last year to 12,483 this year.

The Scottish Government has said that the new 25 limit will not be in place for the start of the new school year.

Ken McIntosh, Labour's education spokesman, said: "With the number of placing requests on the rise, that can only reflect anxiety and unease among parents and pupils.

"With no backstop of 25 in place, pupils will suffer. This is further evidence of incompetence on the part of the Cabinet secretary."

Yesterday's statistics showed that about two-thirds of the overall placing requests in 2008-09 – 19,456 – were for primary schools and the remainder were secondaries.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The vast majority of parents in Scotland choose their local school for their child to attend, demonstrating the faith parents have in our education system. Parents can, however, express a preference for the school choice and today's statistics show most of these placing requests – over 80 per cent – are granted."

Meanwhile, exam result figures issued by the government showed 47.3 per cent of Scottish school leavers finished school in 2008-09 with at least one Higher.

Ninety-four per cent of school leavers attained maths at Standard Grade and 93.7 per cent in English.

The statistics from the Scottish Qualifications Authority showed that 3.3 per cent of school leavers obtained no awards at Standard Grade or better, compared to 3.7 per cent in 2007-08.