SECONDARY schools in Wales will need an extra 408 classrooms in less than two year's time, a study has found.

This equates to 12 entirely new schools across the country by the start of the 2020/2021 academic year, the research by Scape Group found.

According to the study there will be 12,247 more youngsters in secondary school in September 2020 than there are today - although the number of primary school pupils will remain static.

This represents an increase in the number of pupils of 7.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, nearly 200 schools in Wales have closed over the past five years while 69 new ones have opened - with Newport and Swansea the only two local authority areas not to have closed schools.

Commenting on the report, chief executive of Scape Group, a public sector procurement specialist, Mark Robinson said: “Wales needs to build hundreds of school classrooms in a short timeframe, and local authorities across the region continue to feel the strain.

"We must collectively focus on delivering a strategy and solutions which not only provide high-quality, modern spaces for teaching and learning but also offer our colleagues in local authorities cost certainty, value for money and timely delivery.

“The issue of school places delivery is likely to be exacerbated in the coming years if we do not think and act more creatively now. Good schools are the bedrock of our society, and there can be no room for error."

He called on the Welsh Government and councils - which are responsible for building and running schools - to take "pragmatic action" to tackle the issue.

Responding, a Welsh Government spokesman said: “Our flagship 21st Century Schools and Education programme, worth £3.7 billion, represents the largest investment in our schools and colleges since the 1960s.

“Local authorities and further education institutions decide on what the strategic priorities for investment in their area are. We would therefore expect them to take into account any anticipated changes to pupil numbers when drawing together their plans for investment to ensure that we have the right size schools and colleges, in the right location, that provide enough places to deliver Welsh and English medium education.”