COUNCILLORS are expected to agree plans that will ensure Glasgow's children have high-quality schools as the population of the city increases.

Over the past 10 years the population of the city has rise by 6.7 per cent and by 2026 it is expected to have risen to nearly 640,000 people from 615,000.

Now council bosses have finalised their plans to ensure nurseries, primaries and secondaries can accommodate a boost in roll numbers.

Councillor Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills and Early Years said: “This report sets out our plans for the future of our city’s schools and nurseries and builds on the improvement of the education estate over the last 10 years.

“Increasing school rolls, the regeneration of the city centre and changes to our families living habits is seeing a rejuvenation of areas of the city that require us to look at new schools to meet the demand of our families.

“This is great news for education and a testament of how highly regarded the learning and teaching is in Glasgow and a financial commitment of the city government to meet the needs of our children and young people.”

A challenge for Glasgow is that the school estate ranges from Victorian and Edwardian sandstone schools, through the concrete pre-fabricated era of the 1970s to modern new-builds.

The secondary school roll is predicted to rise by 18 per cent over the next decade with primary school numbers expected to rise by four per cent.

This means the city must provide good quality buildings and accommodate more pupils.

In some areas of the city the pressure is greater than others, such as on the South Side with new build homes in Laurieston, Govanhill and the Gorbals.

To deal with this, education bosses propose a new city centre school.

Additional pressure is also expected in the city centre, Possilpark/Ruchill, Cowlairs, Yorkhill, Wallacewell, Easterhouse and Baillieston.

The council says the school estate, following the 4Rs programme of repairing existing buildings and building new ones, is in good condition.

Last August the council opened its first entirely new primary school, Riverbank Primary School.

Councillor Soryia Siddique, who is Labour's education spokeswoman, said: "The education estate strategy is to be welcomed and will build on the historical success of the 4R strategy.

"It is important to plan ahead for the predicted population growth and housing developments resulting in the potential need for new schools in Glasgow.

"The future education estate plan must also involve the consideration of a STEM and Climate Challenge specialist school - ensuring Glasgow learners have increasing options to specialise for future green jobs."

The report also says the following proposals will be looked at further:

*The creation of a city centre school to support the City Centre Living Strategy and to ease the pressure on existing schools due to housing development in Gorbals/Laurieston/Govanhill

• The creation of an additional GME Primary School in the North East of the city

• Re-provisioning of additional Gaelic Medium Education Secondary capacity (within the existing GME Secondary)

• Permanent and temporary extensions where required within the primary and secondary estate

• And the ongoing monitoring of the need to create new primary schools in areas of

the city experiencing significant housing growth