Leanne Wood: ...those aren’t my words, but the findings of research on attitudes to devolution, which you will have read yesterday. If we are halfway through a decade of delivery, why is it that our health and education outcomes are consistently worse than those in Scotland? Why is our GCSE pass rate this year worse than the Scottish equivalent? Why are waiting lists longer on average? And that’s...
Leanne Wood: ...campus. At the end of this Assembly term, will you now give those students some well-deserved good news and abandon that tuition fee hike or does the Labour Party no longer believe in free higher education?
Leanne Wood: .... That is down to your Government. First Minister, you’ve turned your back on students, and you must be hearing the same messages that we have been hearing. Plaid Cymru believes that higher education is a public good and should be funded across the education budget by the whole of society. Students want their universities to be better funded through the Higher Education Funding Council...
Leanne Wood: ...National Union of Students believes that tuition fees should be frozen and they say that the announcement your Government has made is a huge step backwards. They say that this will hinder access to education rather than help it, and they say that there should be pragmatic steps towards free higher education. Those students were quoting what was, up until last week, Labour Party policy. Why...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. Do you believe Wales is moving towards free higher education or further away from it?
Leanne Wood: ...decline in numbers has been evident for several years now. It’s not a new problem. The crisis is here, and the crisis is now. You’ve previously admitted that you took your eye off the ball in education, and at that point in time you indicated that your Government would up its game. Since you’ve made that admission in education, what exactly have you been doing?
Leanne Wood: ...the words used by the National Union of Teachers. Back in April, Plaid Cymru warned that teacher recruitment was heading for a perfect storm. We are now in the middle of that storm. The secondary school intake for trainee teachers has dropped a third below the target. That target is based on need—the number of teachers we need in our system. There’s now a gap of around 280 secondary...
Leanne Wood: ...some further questions to answer about this, but I understand there’s an urgent question coming later, so I’d like to ask you about another aspect of the economy, and that is in relation to education and skills. Many concerns have been expressed to me by teachers about their workload, and, linked to that, growing sickness rates. Many people are considering leaving the profession now....
Leanne Wood: ...counselling is going up, and that’s a good thing, because, hopefully, that means that problems can be prevented before they become severe and require specialist help. However, we know that many schools don’t have enough counsellors or teachers with training to help those pupils who may need it. Also, we’ve seen a reduction in local authority youth workers—a staggering 40 per cent...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, the successful Time to Change campaign launched a pilot scheme in nine schools to tackle mental health discrimination and stigma. If this scheme is successful, we should see more young people coming forward to seek help for problems that they might have. So, can you tell us what additional funds you’ve made available for school counsellors and for training for...
Leanne Wood: ...for some time, but the responsibility to navigate through these difficult waters falls to us here in Wales, and it’s you, First Minister, who has overall responsibility for protecting our higher education sector. So, what will the Welsh Government do to support our universities? How will you help to protect these jobs and ensure that there’s no impact in the longer term upon courses?...
Leanne Wood: .... Now, I attended a briefing last week where firefighters informed me of the specific issues pertaining to the Rhondda, and of the sterling work that they’re doing to prevent fires through education, and also through their introduction of fire breaks, and the work that they do once the fires are raging. But more does need to done. And one thing that was suggested to me that could help is...
Leanne Wood: Leader of the house, you’ll be aware of the case of the schoolteacher Juhel Miah who was last week stopped from travelling to the United States via Iceland on a school trip. Juhel is a maths teacher in Llangatwg school. He’s Welsh; he was born in Swansea. He’s also a Muslim with a Bangladeshi name. He’s widely respected by colleagues and loved by pupils. What we see now is a climate...
Leanne Wood: First Minister, is it acceptable to you that there are Labour Party candidates working closely with UKIP on the question of Welsh-medium education? And do you agree with me that the campaign against Carmarthenshire council’s decision has become toxic and unacceptable? And will you outline what action you will take regarding Labour Party members working with UKIP to undermine your own Welsh...
Leanne Wood: First Minister, you will know that national policy has informed the decision in Llangennech in Carmarthenshire to convert a school from dual stream into Welsh medium. Now, that decision needs support from you, but it also needs calm explanation to residents. I’ve got some serious concerns about the, frankly, toxic atmosphere that has emerged on this question. And I’m aware that, among a...
Leanne Wood: Thank you, First Minister, and I agree that the aspiration is a good one, and I’m glad that you’ve mentioned education. In your consultation on creating a million Welsh speakers, you explain how education must play a central role. Your main objective, and what you’re asking local authorities to achieve, is, I quote: ‘A significant increase in the number of children and young people...
Leanne Wood: ...promises and for their pledges. I represent a constituency that voted to leave. The Rhondda has lost GP surgeries. Some communities are depopulating and so are suffering from falling rolls, closing schools. Too many are struggling with social problems. Those promises of extra cash really resonated, and there are people who signed up to those pledges present in this Chamber today, and...
Leanne Wood: ...interested sectors in our economy are informed and fully briefed on the Welsh negotiating position. The UK Government is likely to take much more notice of our position if business, farming, higher education and all of those other sectors affected by this are communicated with and invited to publicly support this plan. The plan needs to go wider than the Welsh Government or Plaid Cymru. It...
Leanne Wood: Well, in fact, there’s no evidence—no evidence whatsoever—that children are being added to waiting lists without reason. Now, the Children, Young People and Education Committee’s report of 2014 highlighted that many children have to wait until their condition worsens to access support. The charity YoungMinds have said that many children and young people tell it how they’ve been...
Leanne Wood: ...increase. As well as impacting upon Welsh communities and the Welsh language, the overall situation is simply not sustainable. That’s why Plaid Cymru put forward the policy that we did on higher education during the last election to deal with the problem of emigration. In terms of solutions from Labour, you’ve offered nothing except to fuel this myth on overseas immigration—internal...
