Gareth Bennett: ...need the knowledge. If you're going to give them the responsibility of voting, they need the knowledge, and I think that that is a crucial point. Now, you said in your statement that: 'Within schools, the active citizenship theme of personal and social education will provide young people with an understanding of politics and the right to vote.' That's the end of your quote. Now, it has...
Gareth Bennett: ...for bringing the debate today. I’m not on any of the committees that scrutinised this Bill, and the issues that are being raised have been raised by my colleague Michelle Brown, who’s on the education committee and who can’t be here today. In principle, we do support the Bill. Introducing IDPs, providing it’s done properly, is a good idea. However, to ensure consistency across...
Gareth Bennett: ...generated when two separate political objectives come into conflict with one another. One of the objectives is the Welsh Government’s aim of achieving 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, in which education will play a crucial part, as Darren Millar articulated. The second objective, or perhaps I should say principle, is the principle of parental choice. Now, in the Welsh Government’s...
Gareth Bennett: I think the issue of political education in schools may be quite pertinent now that we have the local government Minister’s proposals for extending the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds possibly at some future date. So, I wondered how we ensure that political education is taught in a balanced way to represent different political viewpoints.
Gareth Bennett: Yes, thanks for the answer. I think that, with the possibility of 16 and 17-year-olds getting the vote in Wales, there may be a stronger case now for improving the provision of political education in the school system. Indeed, many young campaigners who want the vote have called for that. So, I wonder, going forward, is there likely to be any change, do you feel, to the provision of political...
Gareth Bennett: .... It is a difficult situation. It seems to me that the experience of home learning has varied massively, which, I suppose, we should have expected. Before we can address how to catch up on the lost education of school-aged children as we come out of the COVID crisis, we will need somebody to assess authoritatively exactly where we are. Given that, do you foresee that Estyn will have a big...
Gareth Bennett: ...that we have the right people entering the teaching profession, but we also know that you can't measure things, and certainly you can't measure people, by qualifications alone. Now, we have an education Minister who has frequently made the sensible point that we can't just look at statistics all the time; we have to look at everything in context. We have to see the broader picture. And I...
Gareth Bennett: 5. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on political and citizenship education in Welsh schools? OAQ51858
Gareth Bennett: Will the First Minister make a statement on the provision of relationships and sexuality education in Welsh schools?
Gareth Bennett: ...contributors have generally agreed on today, we do need a joined-up approach. It probably does require a comprehensive response that would be timely, as the NSPCC have asked for. I’m aware that schools and local authorities have put measures in place in some areas, and I’m sure the Minister will give us more information and an update on that. Of course, the problem with this issue is...
Gareth Bennett: ...interesting all the way through, I must stress that. Michelle Brown opened the debate. She talked about the lack of relevant information for prospective students when they're going through the school system and the lack of information regarding things like comparison of courses and the details of likely earnings—the kind of information that you really want prospective students to be...
Gareth Bennett: ...crass stupidity or whether the atrocious effects of their aspirations are actually entirely deliberate, I do not know. The obvious thread running through their various points is the downgrading of education standards in Wales. It is so obvious that I almost suspect that it is being done deliberately. A consistent theme is that they want us to have different exams and standards from those...
Gareth Bennett: ...out a mortgage, not everyone has taken out insurance. Some people are not even aware of this issue when they take out a mortgage in the first place. So, I suppose this is another case for financial education to be included in the school curriculum. Flowing from that, Minister, another question is: are you liaising to good effect with the education Minister on this issue of providing school...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, I understand that the twenty-first century schools programme creates modernised school buildings and I'm certainly not—[Interruption.] I am certainly not—[Interruption.] I am certainly not—[Interruption.] Yes. I'm certainly not denigrating that. However, it does not necessarily create local schools. Indeed, the effect the programme has in some areas may be entirely the opposite....
Gareth Bennett: ...in future NHS bills in return for relatively small investments now. Instead of cutting sports funding, we need to invest. Invest where, though? Well, we need to strengthen the place of physical education in schools, we need to enhance links between the schools and sports clubs; PE teachers should be encouraged to develop these links. There could be a programme of regular visits to school...
Gareth Bennett: ...measures you are taking to encourage working from home, they don't seem to be having an appreciable effect. Now, another pressure on road networks at certain specific times of the day is the school run, whereby parents pick up children and students from schools and colleges. I do sometimes wonder what effect your programme of school closures is having on the lengthening traffic jams....
Gareth Bennett: ...to encourage the growth of Welsh. Sometimes, making something compulsory does not really work. We did have the Welsh Government taking a decision a few years ago to make the teaching of Welsh in schools compulsory up to the age of 16. That decision has proved to be contentious and I wonder if it has actually worked in increasing to any meaningful level the usage of Welsh, by which I mean...
Gareth Bennett: ...community activity groups is a very important part of the fabric of our society. I’m sure there are such groups in everyone’s constituencies and regions. In my region, there’s Cardiff Riding School, for instance, located in Pontcanna fields, surrounded by 35 acres of parkland. The school first opened in 1970 and is owned and operated by Cardiff council as part of their leisure...
Gareth Bennett: ...well the aims of the active travel plan can actually be delivered. Sometimes, the developments of modern living will tend to militate against this effective delivery. For instance, we can encourage schoolchildren to walk to school on a given day as part of this plan, but when we have school reorganisations that lead to the closure of local schools, we are left with the prospect of many...
Gareth Bennett: ...we feel that Welsh language provision should be appropriate to the needs of the local population. We think, on the whole, that it would be better to focus resources on saving and keeping open rural schools in Welsh-speaking west Wales, rather than letting those schools close, which is what has been happening and what continues to happen. But we can't do anything to keep those schools open...
