Catchment review on the cards to tackle overcrowding

Published on 05/07/2012 12:20

CATCHMENT areas for Capital primary schools are set to be reviewed to deal with growing pressure from parents over getting their children into the best schools.

The review is one of a series of measures being looked at by Edinburgh City Council to tackle overcrowding in the most popular primary schools.

Education leader Paul Godzik said the city council would also have to look at building at least one new school and extending existing ones in order to deal with the problem facing the authority.

Last year, it emerged that almost a fifth of primary schools were less than 60 per cent occupied – putting them at risk of closure.

At the same time the Capital has seen a rise in the number of parents being denied out-of-catchment placement requests.

Cllr Godzik said a working group would look at ways of addressing the problem of overcrowding before reporting back to the council in October.

“Parents do have the right to ask for an out-of-catchment placement, but we need to manage that.

“It’s undoubtedly a problem.”