A NUMBER OF schools in the Central Fife Times area are almost full up.

A recent survey by the Scottish Government said there were more than 130 overcrowded schools across the country, with nine in the Kingdom.

And some of those that are nearing full capacity are in this area, including Kelty, Kinglassie and St Ninians primaries and Beath High.

Shelagh McLean, head of education and children's services at Fife Council, said: "We continually monitor the capacity of our schools and work to manage the challenges that rising school rolls can bring from time to time.

"Some flexibility is built into our modelling to help us manage pupil numbers and in some settings we can reconfigure the existing space in schools to create additional classroom spaces.

"Where that's not possible, we may consider temporary modular accommodation or a permanent extension to the school building."

Kelty Primary School is sitting at 95.7 per cent capacity, with 487 pupils attending. It has a limit of 509.

Recently the Times reported of delays to a new £8 million primary school for the village, which would help alleviate capacity problems, with a housing developer and the council at odds.

I & H Brown have permission to build 900 new homes at Cocklaw Street and a planning condition says a school must be provided after so many houses are built.

However, they now want the council to pay for it upfront, something the local authority do not want to agree to.

Kinglassie is 93.8 per cent full, with 210 children and a limit of 224, while St Ninians in Cardenden is sitting at 92 per cent capacity, with 138 pupils and a limit of 150.

And Beath High is filling up, with 1,231 kids on the roll, a little below the limit of 1,317 (93.5 per cent capacity).

Fife is home to nine overcrowded schools in total, six primary schools and three secondaries with more pupils than their limit.

Two of them are in Dunfermline, Duloch and Pitreavie primary schools, which are sitting at 110.4 per cent and 109.9 per cent capacity respectively.

At the other end of the scale, some schools in Fife are more than half empty, with two sitting at just 32 and 33 per cent capacity.

In this area, the schools with the most available places for children are Benarty Primary, which has 299 pupils and a 509 limit (58.7 per cent capacity) and Cowdenbeath Primary.

It has 171 pupils but could take 292. Its current capacity is 58.6 per cent.