David Rowlands: Can I thank the committee for this report and can I say that we will be supporting the motion? Funding our schools, as with our NHS, has always been a controversial issue, but, as with the NHS, we cannot fail to ensure that our education system receives adequate funding. Whatever financial pressures our local authorities are under, school budgets are not the place to make cuts. Only by...
David Rowlands: Since devolution, statistics have shown that the Welsh education system, once the envy of many, has become—and I make no excuse in using this hackneyed phrase—a race to the bottom. We can therefore well understand the current education Minister's desire to drastically improve the standard of education now being achieved in Welsh schools, and it is true to say that the tenacity and sheer...
David Rowlands: ...to the debate, and thank the petitioner again for bringing the petition forward? I will make a short synopsis of some of the comments that were made. Andrew R.T. Davies made the point of a rural school often being at the heart of a community, citing Llancarfan school in his constituency as an example of closing a school that has a strong argument to be kept open. Rhun ap Iorwerth argued...
David Rowlands: Could we have a statement, Minister, with reference to comments about the new education curriculum by a number of academics and educationalists? Chief amongst these are the Welsh Local Government Association and the National Association of Headteachers Cymru. Both contend that the challenge in implementing it is enormous. This follows on from the Association of Directors of Education in Wales...
David Rowlands: Diolch, Llywydd. On behalf of the Petitions Committee, may I thank Members for the opportunity to hold this debate today? This petition, 'Presumption in Favour of Rural Schools', concerns the Welsh Government's school organisation code and the protection afforded to schools in rural areas. As Members will know, recent revisions made to the code attempt to provide stronger safeguards and...
David Rowlands: They can, of course, be done by the authority directly itself, if that is the case at this moment in time. It is the schools and the teaching professionals who run them who know best where to spend the funds available. They are in the best place to decide priorities. Let's put our trust in these professionals. I was told by a headmaster some years ago about the inflated costs he faced when...
David Rowlands: ...reject some of our recommendations. The Enterprise, Innovation and Skills Committee's inquiry into apprenticeship delivery in Wales showed that there is now a consensus across both industry and the education sectors that apprenticeships have, for far too long, been a neglected element of our skills enhancement process. We are of course now reaping the results of this neglect in the...
David Rowlands: Minister, can we have a statement from the Minister for Education on the parlous state of a number of schools in the South Wales East region? We understand that there are five schools in special measures, three in need of significant improvement, and five where progress is under review following Estyn inspections. Could we also have a statement from the First Minister on the announcement by...
David Rowlands: ...to anecdotal evidence—I see that Lee Waters has just left the Chamber—I would like to say that I may indeed be the only AM present who actually experienced both a secondary modern and a grammar school education, in that I first attended—[Interruption.] I’ll give a pass to my colleague there, who may also have done that. I first attended the former before going on to the latter. I...
David Rowlands: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the ability of Torfaen's education department to support Cwmbran High School?
David Rowlands: ...of local government, with 22 local authorities reduced to eight. It could be said that this never came about because the Labour Party is in hock to the trade unions, who oppose such reorganisation. Education in Wales has an appalling record over the last 20 years—countless schools in special measures and, as in Torfaen, even the local education authority was placed in special measures....
David Rowlands: Absolutely. This was all about your abilities, and taking each and every pupil by his distinct abilities. The advent, unfortunately, of comprehensive schools with as many as 1,500 pupils has seen an abandonment of those pupils who are given practical skills rather than academic. Apart from an over-concentration of IT education, practical subjects have all but disappeared from the school...
David Rowlands: However, we remain concerned about a lack of national direction in relation to ensuring that BSL provision is widely available in Welsh schools, and the Minister’s response to our report indicates that this will largely remain at the discretion of individual schools and local authorities. Speaking frankly, it is currently difficult to see this as promising any significant step forward in...
David Rowlands: The petition has a number of objectives: improved access for families to learn BSL, for BSL to be introduced to the national curriculum, better access to education through BSL, and making more services and resources accessible in BSL for deaf young people. I will focus for the rest of this contribution on each of the petition’s objectives in turn, in order to outline the evidence the...
David Rowlands: ...pleased to hear about the involvement of businesses and the funding for Welsh universities in your proposals, as well as your emphasis on prioritising superfast broadband provision in Welsh schools. I also welcome the fact that the scheme 'Cracking the code' has raised awareness of coding in schools and, in particular, I note there are now 473, maybe even more, active clubs registered...
David Rowlands: ...the new curriculum trial supported it? Most of the teachers that I have spoken to say that if the curriculum is entirely driven by the four purposes, much of the content associated with traditional school subjects in the areas of learning and experience become largely redundant. If, on the other hand, teachers prioritise the areas of learning and experience, then the four purposes are...
David Rowlands: ...Jones are largely ignored. The Welsh Government says it is committed to a zero-carbon economy in Wales and that active travel is to play a significant role in achieving their goals, but a policy of school centralisation will, as Caroline Jones pointed out, almost undoubtedly negate the ability of our schoolchildren to engage in either walking or cycling to school. Not only are we...
David Rowlands: I thank the leader of the house for that enlightening answer. Can I now turn to another matter, which I know you take extremely seriously—that of bullying, particularly in the context of schools? Given the recent tragic incident in St John Lloyd Catholic Comprehensive School in Llanelli, where a young boy, Bradley John, suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, committed...
David Rowlands: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your answer. We in UKIP believe that many students would be better off following another route to their desired career path; in other words, education should be more closely linked to employability rather than pure educational qualifications. Given such statistics as those quoted in the Wales section of the employer skills survey of 2017, which shows a...
David Rowlands: ...the theme explored by Helen Mary Jones, but almost certainly not as eloquently as she has put it, I wanted to discuss the governance of the institutions that are charged with delivering our higher education. Whilst we acknowledge the financial crisis now faced by the higher education sector and regret the substantial job losses over the last few years, we also have to realise that, being...
