Coronavirus safety concerns have been raised after it emerged that 14 north and north-east schools are packed to the point of being over capacity.
Fears were raised that social distancing would be almost impossible in some of the schools where pupil numbers are up to 33% higher than education chiefs intended.
Eight schools in Highland are over-capacity, as well as a further five in Aberdeenshire and one in Moray, according to newly published Scottish Government data.
Kemnay Academy in the north-east made the top five in Scotland, with statistics from September last year showing there were 931 pupils in a school intended for 700.
Meldrum Academy, Hillside School, Auchenblae School and Towie School were the others in Aberdeenshire to be recorded as over capacity.
In Highland, Knockbreck Primary School at Tain was running at 124% of capacity in September last year.
Culloden Academy was above the target, as were primaries at Auldearn, Avoch, Bridgend, Kirkhill, Lochardil and Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Loch Abar at Caol.
Linkwood Primary, meanwhile, was the only Moray school to be recorded as over capacity.
Joanna Murphy, chairwoman of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said: “Some schools are significantly over capacity.
“At the moment this makes it difficult to implement any social distancing at all in some schools, which is of concern.
“There were suggestions when we were going to be doing blended learning to start using other facilities outside of the school estates, such as local halls and libraries that are still not being used for anything else.
“I think, before the government moves to anything else more extreme, that it would be more helpful to look at this suggestion to space young people out.
“They stopped looking at this because we were all going back to school and everything was fine but, actually, it’s not fine and it’s showing it’s not fine.”
Gwyneth Petrie, leader of the SNP group at Aberdeenshire Council, said risk assessments had been carried out at every school.
“Risk assessments have been undertaken, so I would hope that if there were any problems, particularly with overcrowding in schools because of Covid, then they would have been flagged up in those,” she said.
Craig Clement, head of resources and performance for Aberdeenshire Council, said it was always important to look at such statistics in context.
“While a small number of our schools may appear to be over capacity, often the working capacity of our school buildings is very different, achieved either through the addition of temporary accommodation or the reconfiguration of spaces inside the school.
“In addition, these figures do not reflect the impressive building projects currently under way, which will provide additional capacity in areas where it is most needed.”