Minister says plan on track to provide 100,000 pupils with higher-quality classrooms by 2011

Last year, 35,000 more Scottish schoolchildren took their lessons in new state-of-the-art classrooms, after completion of 115 school building projects.

The figures were released in the latest school estate statistics. Cabinet secretary for education, Fiona Hyslop, visiting one of the refurbishment projects yesterday, said that the data showed the plan was on track to lift 100,000 pupils out of poor-quality classrooms by 2011.

鈥淲e are matching the previous administration's school building programme brick for brick, and we have honoured our commitment to continue to improve the school estate. Today's figures clearly show work is continuing apace to improve the school estate,鈥� she said.

More than 拢2bn of investment is under way into Scotland's schools.

Hyslop added: 鈥淚n total we expect 250 schools to be built, funded, or under construction through various funding mechanisms during the life of this parliament.鈥�

She added, however, that Scotland needed a 鈥渓onger-term, targeted strategy for the school estate, beyond the lifetime of this parliament鈥�.

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