Survey reveals pre-school rise

The number of children accessing pre-school education in Scotland has risen by about 10,000 in the past year and a half, according to provisional statistics published last week by the Scottish Executive. Nearly 99,000 children aged three to five were attending pre-school education and daycare centres in January 2001, the provisional results of the 2001 Pre-school and Day Care Census suggest. The final figures are due in the autumn. Almost three-quarters of the children were attending local authority pre-school centres and the rest were in centres which were working in partnership with their local authority.