THIS time of year can be one of the most stressful for families with children reaching school age or moving to secondary.

By now parents who have been unable to get their offspring into their school of choice through the use of a placing request will be worrying about the future. Should they appeal, perhaps move house, go to their local school or consider the private sector?

Dealing with a placing request refusal is, of course, not a new phenomenon, but increasing numbers of parents who use this route are being left disappointed.

Figures from East Renfrewshire, which has some of the most popular schools in Scotland, show a sharp increase in the number of placing requests refused this year with hundreds missing out.

But it is not just leafy suburb authorities who are declining increasing numbers of requests. In 2013 Glasgow City Council began reserving places at some of its most popular schools to ensure pupils who moved into the catchment areas could attend.

The most recent national figures available show this is also an issue across Scotland with fewer parents currently being given their choice of primary school than at any time during the past two decades and a corresponding rise in court cases to contest these decisions.

One of the main reasons is because local authorities have shut or merged primaries as part of a money-saving rationalisation of the estate. This smaller number of schools has led to fewer spare places, which has in turn reduced the ability of parents to place their children in schools outside their catchment area.

The decline has also been blamed on the Scottish Government's drive to reduce class sizes with a legal-binding 25-pupil limit in place for the first year of primary. Interestingly, placing requests themselves are also partly to blame for this phenomenon.

The system was introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1980 as part of moves to create greater social mobility by allowing aspirational parents access to "better" schools.

It meant parents who did not want to send their children to their local school were able for the first time to secure a place elsewhere, so long as there was space, but critics argued it was also intended to create a market in state education which would force less popular schools to close.

In fact what the legislation has done is to exacerbate differences between schools which has led to a heightened perception that some are better than others, in turn fuelling further waves of placing requests.

Educational expert Brian Boyd argued recently that placing requests had led to increasing inequality because it polarised communities and exacerbated differences between comprehensive schools in different areas.

With increasing numbers of placing requests now being refused what happens next will be hugely significant. If parents move house or seek a place in the private sector then little will change.

But if families decide to give their local school a chance and bring with them their passion for education then there is a possibility educational inequalities may begin to be rebalanced.