Mark Reckless: ...Paul Davies. I also complement Plaid on their motion, with which we agree. I’ll ask them to understand that our only reason for voting otherwise will be to ensure a vote on our own amendment. The school funding crisis in Wales is severe. NASUWT Wales calculates that there is now a £678 funding gap per pupil between England and Wales. We believe it’s important to note that that is...
Mark Reckless: But do our schools teach pupils very well to pass exams—or at least sufficiently—on the current results? One change we are having, which I should welcome, which the education Secretary put out this morning, is we are seeing a 2.75 per cent increase in teachers' pay and 5 per cent for the newly qualified, and, I think, £12.8 million in the current year to support that. However, would the...
Mark Reckless: May I congratulate all the children who are back in school in Wales this week, even if it is part time, and all those who have worked so hard to get them back, not least your education Secretary, Kirsty Williams? I would have liked more children to have returned earlier, but I do not want to criticise the Welsh Government, cavil with what is happening versus what was promised, or make...
Mark Reckless: .... On the sector-wide audit exercise, again, could I just clarify whether this has been done before, and if so, how long ago? Is there anything to build on here? There's a middle tier, actually. Education Minister, you've said quite a lot in your answers to other statements about the local education authorities, but I was struck that there was no mention of them in your actual written...
Mark Reckless: I was disappointed that this came after rather than before the press statement earlier, but nonetheless I would like to welcome this statement from the education Secretary, and that we are going to see at least some reopening of schools. Unlike Siân Gwenllian, I would have preferred it to be earlier rather than later but it's happening and I welcome that, and I'd like to thank the education...
Mark Reckless: I think that is the core trend. I agree with you and broadly what the Conservatives have been pushing in that area—that in education in Wales, the results seem to have got significantly worse over that period, and that has been the substantial trend. If there is some improvement this year, I think that we should recognise that, but I think the trend is still the dominant matter. With the...
Mark Reckless: ...I think my view and perhaps the view of many, at least in the Conservative group, may be different from yours, Cabinet Secretary, and from the Labour Government, but it's about accountability for schools and transparency over how they are doing. We have Estyn's own assessment and the rating it gives. We then have this red, amber and green, which I think comes from Welsh Government. And the...
Mark Reckless: Our policy on grammar schools is one of a number of policies. I think it is really unacceptable for the Welsh Government to use, as a shield for this—I think everyone agrees—deeply unsatisfactory set of PISA results, a report that it will not share. How can we sensibly respond to the statement, or take part in this debate on even terms with the Government, if they have a report they cite...
Mark Reckless: The First Minister speaks of social partnership, but an impression many parents have got over the last month or two is that, with powers split between Welsh Government, councils and schools themselves, the teaching unions may have been too dominant an aspect of that partnership. When you, First Minister, spoke about even giving consideration to schools coming back after half term, you quickly...
Mark Reckless: ...that money is used in many local authorities—and then we have seen cuts in the health service that we haven't seen in England in real terms. And then we have this very significant gap in education spending. Labour, you must decide what your priorities are, and if education is less of a priority for you in Wales than it is for the Conservatives in England, and than we would like to make...
Mark Reckless: But if you don't publish the results, if you treat league tables as a dirty phrase, if you tell each school to measure what they like and hold themselves to account, how are parents possibly going to judge what schools are delivering and make decisions about where they want their children to go to school? The fact is that accountability measures in Wales—. Let's take primary schools, Kirsty...
Mark Reckless: Does the Minister believe that the advantages of consolidation of post-16 education at Merthyr Tydfil College outweigh any reduction in choice or increase in travel times for those students who, in the past, have attended school sixth forms?
Mark Reckless: ...can be no excuse if we do not see improvement in teacher recruitment. As well as improving terms and conditions, we need to increase the number of routes into teaching. Darren mentioned further education teachers, overseas teachers, teachers from independent schools. Llyr mentioned teaching assistants. I hope the Cabinet Secretary will join me in commending Teach First, which has been...
Mark Reckless: May I ask the Cabinet Secretary about the work of the task and finish group? What progress is being made to ensure that when people in school, often counsellors, make referrals of particular children to child and adolescent mental health services that those referrals are properly taken back, and are not, as some of the evidence we found as the Children, Young People and Education Committee,...
Mark Reckless: ...as ably as he did the UK Government previously. I welcome the report from Sally Holland, the children's commissioner, and thank her for the evidence she gave to the Children, Young People and Education Committee on 18 October. I think one area she deserves particular congratulation on is the lead she has taken in galvanising local authorities around the care leavers agenda. In...
Mark Reckless: ...of learning and experience. The co-author of her White Paper, Professor Calvin Jones, says they struggle with the idea of a public standardised exam that gives pupils a grade. Instead, they want schools to focus on teaching the skills of empathy, emotional intelligence, artistry, creativity, care giving and carbon cutting. Does the First Minister agree with their vision for the future of...
Mark Reckless: ...s the dearth of employment opportunities that, in many cases, lead people to leave the area, and then some of those houses are then taken up by second-home owners. Similarly, in Gwynedd, there's an education policy in terms of the Welsh language where there's 100 mainstream schools, and it says they're all bilingual, but, actually, when they say bilingual, that's how they style it;...
Mark Reckless: ...decision and it's not made with overbearing confidence. I speak with humility; I'm not sure that I'm correct. I speak tentatively in what I say. I also recognise some of the achievements of the education system in Wales under the leadership of Kirsty Williams during the fifth Assembly. I have spoken before particularly about the Seren scheme and the number of children getting into top,...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. May I congratulate the First Minister, the education secretary, the 107 schools and the 3,165 learners who took part in the PISA tests? They are significantly better than the very poor results we saw in 2016, and I think it's appropriate to put that on the record. If it had been the other way, I would have been coruscating in my criticism. Can I, however, ask about the...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, your Liberal Democrat Minister published on Thursday a statement further watering down school accountability in Wales. Her new measures will remove the emphasis on the level 2 inclusive measure for GCSE, despite that grade C to D boundary being so important for school and university, particularly in maths and English, when people consider future employment. Measure-specific...
