3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement regarding the 21st century schools programme in Swansea East? OAQ(5)0081(EDU)

Thank you, Mike. Band A of the twenty-first century schools and education programme will see an investment of over £51 million in schools in Swansea over the five-year period ending 2019. Of this, over £34 million will have been spent in the Swansea East constituency.

Firstly, can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for both her answer and visiting the newly built Burlais school, especially as Burlais school replaced two schools that needed replacing, with very serious problems with their buildings—they had internal running water every time it rained. I’ve also invited the Cabinet Secretary to visit Blaenymaes school, which is on the council’s rebuilding programme. Can the Cabinet Secretary confirm that the twenty-first century schools programme will continue?

Well, Mike, I was very pleased to see the new Burlais school and the difference that that building is making to the education of children in the area. I am also very pleased to receive an invitation to visit Blaenymaes school. My late grandma, Mary Hall, was the senior cook at Blaenymaes school for very many years. She peeled a lot of spuds for those kids in her time. So, the opportunity to visit Blaenymaes is one I very much welcome indeed. I’m also pleased to confirm that work is currently being undertaken to develop band B of the twenty-first century schools and education programme, and the next wave of this investment is scheduled to begin in 2019 and run over the five-year period until 2024.

You mentioned the forward look plan there, but, according to officials, Swansea council’s admittedly rather controversial local development plan is likely to be delayed now, and part of the twenty-first century schools programme aims to address the issue of capacity, of course, in schools that are both overcrowded and those that have surplus places. If the local development plan is delayed, what impact do you think this might have on the planning for those school locations and capacities in Swansea? It’s a local authority, who, to me, seems still to be trying to get its head around Welsh language medium provision, let alone anything else, and that’s despite being able to use the LDP as an opportunity for promoting Welsh-medium education as well as a threat. Thank you.

Well, it’s disappointing that the local development plan will be delayed, because one of the core principles of the twenty-first century schools programme is to ensure that we have the right number of school places in the right place. Often, the proposals to develop a particular conurbation or town or village are instrumental in the process of approving a twenty-first century school’s grant, which might have capacity bigger than is currently needed, because we know that housing is to come on stream. My officials will continue to work very closely with Swansea council to ensure that delays in their planning department will not affect our ability to do what I want to do and, I’m sure, what the Member wants to do, which is see continued investment in the Swansea schools.

Following on the same theme, really, what discussions have you specifically had with the City and County of Swansea to try and ensure that the current education planning requirements are not unreasonably delayed or vague as a result of these delays in the local development plan?

Well, as I’ve said, Dai, officials continue to speak regularly with Swansea city council. We want to ensure that the proposals that are currently in band A of the programme are delivered upon, and we want to ensure best value for the Welsh Government’s money when band B comes into operation. We do this in a partnership approach, so, therefore, we need a clear understanding of the aspiration Swansea council has, and we would not expect any delays, as I said, in the planning department to impact upon our ability to invest in the school capacity that Swansea needs, regardless of whether that capacity is in the Welsh or the English medium.

Cabinet Secretary, the majority of Welsh-medium primary schools in Swansea have pupil-to-teacher ratios greater than 25, and all bar one are in the yellow and amber support categories. This, coupled with recent news highlighting the difficulty in recruiting Welsh-medium teachers, and news about the severe delays in rolling out the curriculum, is a concern. Cabinet Secretary, what will you be doing to reassure parents within my region about the future of their children’s education in Welsh-medium primary schools? Thank you.

The Member will be aware that the planning of Welsh-medium provision falls to my colleague, the Minister with responsibility for the language, who is currently considering how best we can ensure that the Welsh in education plans that have come forward are adequate and are ambitious. We understand that if we’re to meet the Welsh Government’s target of an additional 1 million Welsh-speakers then education has a crucial role to play in that. I know, from my own family’s experience, where the language was lost in my generation and the generation of my husband, that the ability to attend a Welsh-medium primary school has brought the language back to my family, and I am incredibly proud to see children whose parents are English being able to speak to their parents in English and speak to their ‘mam-gu’s and their ‘tad-cu’s in Welsh in the same conversation. That’s why we are absolutely committed to ensure that local authorities are as ambitious as we are for Welsh-medium education in Wales.