asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will list in the Official Report the present level of pupil-teacher ratios in (a) primary schools, and (b) secondary schools for each local education authority, with the comparable figures for 1973.

Pupil-teacher ratios within schools for each local education authority in England and Wales for January 1977—the latest available information—were published in a press notice by my Department on 29th December 1977, a copy of which is in the Library.Figures for January 1973 for these local education authorities given below have been calculated from the component parts of education authorities as they existed prior to the April 1974 local government reorganisation. Comparisons between these figures may be complicated by the development of a middle school system of changed arrangements for education of those above compulsory school leaving age.