Mark Reckless: ...to a four-nations approach in more areas and closer to what the UK Government was doing. My greatest concern about these regulations, or at least how they're being implemented on the ground, is schools. We were told that getting kids back to school was the most important thing, yet this is the third week that all kids have been back in England, yet we still see huge numbers of children not...
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: ...households, up to four, to meet outside—I think the trajectory is right, there, even if the detail is a little different. The area I'd really like to focus on, though, is what's happening with schools. Can the Minister clarify when further detail will be issued so people can prepare more widely for that return to school? He mentioned a March date just now. Can he confirm exactly what is...
Mark Reckless: The Minister referenced more consensus in Wales on higher education. I think there probably is something to be said for that. I'm not sure that she's yet entirely got me with the programme on progressive universalism, but I criticised the Diamond report initially for proposing maintenance grants for families with up to £80,000 a year income, which I thought was way too high, but the Minister...
Mark Reckless: ...a Secretary of State for Wales? We could integrate all departments properly; we could empower local government, allowing Welsh councils greater freedoms than they now have; we could return Welsh education to at least the standard seen in England; we could once again rely on a single, integrated NHS, true to the model of Aneurin Bevan and deal with COVID together. There is nothing about the...
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: ...be allowed to spend money in more areas in Wales; surely that is a good thing. Others object because it might limit, apparently, their policy control. The UK Government might perhaps fund free schools or academies and allow parents and their children more choice of education in Wales. Some Members refer to respecting manifesto commitments, but, of course, the UK Government's spending in...
Mark Reckless: ...decisions that have been made elsewhere, will surely make it more difficult for those here affected to compete, whether in a university or in the employment market. Didn't Tony Blair's Minister for schools Andrew Adonis hit it on the head when he said earlier today, in response to the leak of your announcement and statement, 'I strongly support the sitting of GCSEs and A-levels by students...
Mark Reckless: ...any split as to whether that's repurposing or consequential, or a combination and, if so, what it is. You mentioned £15 million for digital learning. That's a relatively small sum in the scale of education and what's happened. You mentioned £60 million more for construction, including energy efficiency. I think energy efficiency is one of the best ways of limiting carbon emissions in...
Mark Reckless: ...said, though, that only 75 to 85 per cent of what you might expect in a normal term for people were back, and I just wonder if another reason for that may be the interaction with before and after-school care. Although generally the return to school has worked well, I have had a number of constituents who've raised concerns about the availability of before and after-school care that was...
Mark Reckless: .... Is it the case that Wrexham has had the highest infection rate of anywhere in the UK? If so, that wasn't clear from your statement. What do you propose to do about that, if so? On the issue of school masks and requiring some secondary school children potentially in some contexts to wear those, what is the situation in Wales? I understand that the committee was meeting last night to...
Mark Reckless: ...curriculum then, and, interestingly, it was Margaret Thatcher who was trying to keep discretion for teachers and limit the extent to which the Bill was prescriptive, and many in the Department for Education who were wanting to go the other way, and the outcome was a compromise. But they were specifying particular things that had to happen in areas at the time in the curriculum, whereas the...
Mark Reckless: ...with the Scottish curriculum that haven't been uniformly well written up, and what his role was with that and how it's different, what he's been doing with you, for Wales? You refer to every school having the opportunity to design and implement their own curriculum. Can I clarify: is that a requirement for every school as well as an opportunity, or is there a national curriculum that the...
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: 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: 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: ...with your equality tests and the requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? Finally, can you confirm if equality means that, were I to send my children to Welsh-speaking schools, they could go back early, but if I send them to an English-speaking school, you would make them stay at home?
Mark Reckless: I will give way to David, who will educate me further on this point.
Mark Reckless: ...for money and power. The Welsh Government in this Assembly demand more money and more power, and claim it will be spent or exercised better than by UK Government. But what is the record? For education, Wales is still bottom of the UK table and below the OECD average for maths, reading and science on the PISA results. For health, we have record numbers waiting more than 12 hours in...
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?
