Jeremy Miles: Yes, I know what you're asking and I'm describing to you the alternative universe in which a Conservative Government is asked to deal with these questions and fails. [Interruption.] In Wales, what we do is we work in social partnership, and I reject the description he gives of that. It is a respectful partnership; it is a transparent partnership. There are difficult issues to work through,...
Jeremy Miles: The Welsh Government's education budget sets out our continued commitment to implementing our programme of educational reform, ensuring that educational inequalities narrow and standards rise.
Jeremy Miles: Well, I think this is bold, coming from a member of the party that is the only party in Wales to campaign at an Assembly election to cut the education budget by 12 per cent. It's quite something. It is quite something, and it shows just how shallow their commitment to the facts is. Just to be— [Interruption.] You absolutely did, and it was defended by Andrew R.T. Davies subsequently. So,...
Jeremy Miles: Peter Fox has asked for the facts. The facts are these: the funding that we received as a Barnett consequential from Westminster was passported fully on to local authorities, and not only that, it was increased through the education budget. So, in Wales, unlike what happens in Conservative England, where the budget for post-COVID intervention has completely disappeared, we have not...
Jeremy Miles: The emphasis on the history of Wales in the new curriculum will give young people an opportunity to learn more about the history of our language. Due to the efforts of people like the Beasleys and others, the linguistic landscape of Wales has been transformed. Hundreds of organisations now provide Welsh-medium services.
Jeremy Miles: Thank you very much to Adam Price for those important points. I acknowledge, of course, the important contribution made by campaigners such as Eileen and Trefor Beasley to the story of the language, and their stance has been very important in that history. I understand that there are calls, including today, to turn the property into a cultural centre of some sort. It's worth also considering...
Jeremy Miles: Living costs should never be a barrier to studying at university, which is why, despite continuing budget pressures, the Welsh Government has ensured that the value of support has increased significantly by 9.4 per cent in line with the national living wage—news that was welcomed by National Union of Students Wales on behalf of its student membership.
Jeremy Miles: Well, I thank Joyce Watson for that important supplementary, and I recognise there's a particular challenge sometimes, as she was saying, for people going back to education perhaps later on in life. I know that she shares my pride in the fact that we are committed to making sure that, whether you're studying full time or part time, you have access to the same support pro rata, which I think...
Jeremy Miles: Increasing opportunities allowing people to continue to learn through Welsh is crucially important. That's why we're investing additional funding to expand post-16 Welsh-medium delivery. We're doing this jointly with Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement.
Jeremy Miles: I agree entirely with that. In the Member's own area, the Blaenau Gwent Welsh in education strategic plan includes specific targets and challenging targets, in the local context, to increase the number of post-16 learners studying Welsh as a subject and studying through the medium of Welsh in a wider range of subjects, including—and I'll just refer back to the question from Huw...
Jeremy Miles: Local authorities are required by law to have an established school forum, and the purpose of a school forum is to help develop informed and confident dialogue between local authorities and their schools, including, importantly, on budgetary issues.
Jeremy Miles: In the next financial year, the South Wales West region of the Member will receive £945 million in settlement funding, and Wales as a whole sees an increase of 7.9 per cent in settlement funding over last year on a like-for-like basis. These increases are higher than the vast majority of increases for local authorities over recent years, which shows the continuing priority that we as a...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Our national mission action plan was published in 2017. Since that time, we have made great strides in education. Amongst many other things, we are rolling out the Curriculum for Wales, implementing a new additional learning needs system, and establishing the commission for tertiary education and research. I am proud of what we have achieved, but we must continue to...
Jeremy Miles: Dirprwy Lywydd, it's designed to be a useful tool for practitioners, providing a timeline for our plans and coherence across the portfolio. Our ambitions for education are unchanged: our national mission is to achieve high standards and aspirations for all, and we will do this by tackling the impact of poverty on educational attainment and supporting every learner. The document doesn't simply...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for his questions. He will know from my statement and from other statements that I have made that, closing the attainment gap between those students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers is a key priority for me, as I just outlined in the statement. He somewhat misrepresents the experience in relation to the attainment gap since the publication of the...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you very much to the Member for those questions and for listing the challenges. I’m sure she is eager too to celebrate the successes in our education system and all of the work being done in our classrooms on a daily basis to provide the best possible education for our young people. I’m sure that she would acknowledge that too. In terms of her specific questions, I'll do my best to...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for her questions. I didn't quite catch the entirety of the last question, but I think I had the thrust of it, so I will do my best to respond to it. Thank you, firstly, for inviting me to attend, with her, Perthcelyn school. I found it an incredibly inspiring visit, and meeting the head and the pupils and some of the staff there, I saw a school that was committed to...
Jeremy Miles: I agree with the Member on the important role of the commission and of the vision that we share in terms of the contribution of the commission to reforming post-16 education in all parts of Wales, and I will refer her to the response that I gave last week on the specific question that she’s asked.
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Llywydd. I’d like to open this debate by thanking Owen Evans, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, for his annual report. It’s an independent picture of how providers of education and training are performing and helping our learners to develop. The report provides a valuable source of evidence, helping to steer the development of policy at a...
Jeremy Miles: I was pleased to read that, despite the challenges from the pandemic, the report recognises that education and training providers have responded with fortitude and institutions brought closer to their learners and the communities they serve. I'm continually grateful, Llywydd, to everyone working in the education sector for all they have done and continue to do to support our learners. I'm...
