Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No.3: 2012 Edition

This contains the results of the annual pupil census, annual teacher census, pre-school data and school estate data.


Data on pre-school, primary and total teachers along with associated pupil teacher ratios for 2010, 2011 and 2012 have been revised to remove teachers who were double counted as a result of working in both sectors. Therefore these figures have been superseded, please use revised figures in the 2013 publication.

General

Table 1.1 shows the number of school, pupils and teachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland. In September 2012 there were 97,985 children in 2,548 pre-schools, 370,680 pupils in 2,064 primary schools, 293,562 pupils in 365 secondary schools and 6,976 pupils in 155 special schools.

The proportion of pupils in special schools continues to be about one per cent, however the number of pupils in special schools has increased from 6,673 in 2009 to 6,976 in 2012.

The total number of teachers in all sectors was 51,410 which is 21 fewer than the 2011 figure of 51,431.

Although pupil numbers increased and teacher numbers fell, these changes were not large enough to change the pupil teacher ratio in publicly funded schools, which remained the same at 13.4 in 2012. Local Authorities agreed to maintain teacher numbers in line with pupil numbers as part of the 2011 Spending Review.

Table 1.1: Schools, pupils, teachers and pupil teacher ratios (PTR) for all publicly funded schools by school sector, 2005 to 2012

  2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Schools
Pre-schools(1) 2,761 2,750 2,702 2,645 2,615 2,586 2,553 2,548
Primary 2,194 2,184 2,168 2,153 2,128 2,099 2,081 2,064
Secondary 385 381 378 376 374 372 367 365
Special 190 190 183 193 190 163 158 155
Pupils
Pre-schools(1) 105,810 111,720 106,060 105,420 107,420 92,030 94,840 97,985
Primary 390,260 382,783 375,946 370,839 367,146 365,326 366,429 370,680
Secondary 315,840 312,979 309,560 303,978 302,921 301,007 297,109 293,562
Special 7,140 6,975 6,709 6,756 6,673 6,800 6,973 6,976
Total (excluding pre-school) 713,240 702,737 692,215 681,573 676,740 673,133 670,511 671,218
Teachers
Pre-schools(1) (2) 1,702 1,704 1,689 1,650 1,630 1,563 1,486 1,496
Publicly funded schools 52,207 53,043 53,411 52,697 51,371 50,535 49,946 49,914
Total based in schools 50,757 51,886 52,446 51,765 50,599 49,821 49,065 48,738
Primary 22,991 23,625 23,829 23,615 23,243 23,131 22,851 22,732
Secondary 25,735 26,186 26,573 26,067 25,371 24,776 24,241 23,980
Special 2,031 2,075 2,044 2,083 1,985 1,913 1,973 2,026
Centrally employed 1,450 1,157 964 933 772 714 881 1,176
Total(2) 53,909 54,747 55,100 54,347 53,001 52,098 51,431 51,410
PTRs
Publicly funded schools(3) 13.7 13.3 13.0 12.9 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.4
Total based in schools(4) 14.1 13.5 13.2 13.2 13.4 13.5 13.7 13.8
Primary 17.0 16.2 15.8 15.7 15.8 15.8 16.0 16.3
Secondary 12.3 12.0 11.6 11.7 11.9 12.1 12.3 12.2
Special 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.5 3.4

(1) From 2010 pre-school figures are not directly comparable with previous years. Pre-school centre count includes local authority and partnership centres. Pre-school teachers figures now include pre-school home visiting. See background note 3.12

(2) The 2011 pre-school and total teacher FTE was revised to 51,431 on the 3/5/2012 , see background note 3.4

(3) All school-based and centrally employed teachers contribute to this ratio. Includes grant aided pupils and teachers.

(4) All school-based teachers contribute to this ratio.

Contact

Email: Kieran Furness

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