Many parents will find out today whether their child has a place at their first choice primary school.
About 600,000 families will be left disappointed and some will have to travel further than they want to every day just to see their children take up a place at all.
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Employment minister Priti Patel, a Brexit supporter, said families in England would be hit by a shortage and blamed uncontrolled migration for putting ‘unsustainable pressure’ on public services.
She said: “The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services.
“Education is one of the most important things the Government delivers, and it’s deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.
Patel, whose parents migrated to the UK from Uganda, also claims that if Britain does not leave the EU it can only get worse
“The truth is that,for long as we remain a member of the EU, we are competely unable to control the numbers of people coming to this country — and, with another five countries in the pipeline to join the EU, the problem is set to get even worse.”
Official government figures, published last year, project that by 2023 there will be more than eight million (8,022,000) pupils in England’s schools — up from just over seven million (7,143,000) in the current academic year, a rise of almost 880,000 pupils.
Last year, almost a fifth of pupils missed out on their first choice of primary schools as statistics show one in four schools are now oversubscribed.
The Local Government Association has warned an extra 336,000 primary school places will be needed by 2024.
