- 2 -
different.
While there is a surplus of places for the
territory as a whole of some 41,000 (including the maximum
number of bought places available for purchase), the
distribution is uneven with shortfalls in some Districts
offset by surpluses in others.
2.
As to the reason for the simultaneous surplus
of primary places and shortage of secondary places in
certain Districts, there are three factors which help to
explain this:
(a)
Firstly, the basis of provision is different.
In the case of primary schools, these are
provided in response to the requirements of a
given locality so that young children are not
required to travel more than a short distance
to school. In the case of secondary schools,
where the objective is to achieve a rough
balance of supply and demand territory-wide,
the supply of and demand for places in a
particular District will not necessarily
balance and students may be required to travel
a greater distance. Every effort is made to
minimise this requirement and, as can be seen
from Table 2, those Districts with a
substantial shortfall are adjacent to Districts
with a substantial surplus of places.