asked the Secretary of tSate for Wales how many children under the age of five years in Wales receive bilingual nursery education; and if he will make a statement.
The information is not available in the form requested. In September 1977, the latest date for which information is available, there were 911 infant and nursery classes in primary schools in which Welsh was used as the medium of teaching to a greater or lesser extent.My right hon. and learned Friend's policy is that local education authorities should make provision for bi-lingual education, including bilingual nursery education, having regard to the linguistic characteristics of the particular area and to parental wishes.
asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many children under the age of five years in Wales receive nursery education; what were the corresponding figures for the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.
The information is not available in the form requested since the available data do not enable a breakdown to be made of children under five attending primary schools into those in nursery classes and those in primary classes.The table below shows the numbers of under fives attending maintained nursery and primary schools in Wales for January 1969 to 1978.
| Year | Nursery Schools | Primary Schools | Totals | |
| 1969 | … | 2,647 | 26,799 | 29,446 |
| 1970 | … | 2,730 | 27,237 | 29,967 |
| 1971 | … | 2,893 | 28,743 | 31,636 |
| 1972 | … | 3,188 | 30,559 | 33,747 |
| 1973 | … | 3,584 | 34,072 | 37,656 |
| 1974 | … | 4,300 | 36,598 | 40,898 |
| 1975 | … | 4,451 | 39,057 | 43,508 |
| 1976 | … | 4,495 | 43,216 | 47,711 |
| 1977 | … | 4,442 | 41,373 | 45,815 |
| 1978 | … | 4,549 | 41,003 | 45,552 |