Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:02 pm on 8 February 2017.
I agree with you absolutely. We have a commitment to allow that time to be made available. Members will be aware that I recently visited Finland, which is a nation that is constantly held up as the bastion of great education. One of the things that they are trying to do in Finland to improve their education is to ensure that there is PPA time in school for their teachers. They recognise that teachers currently don’t have the opportunity to sit down together to discuss individual pupils or to plan and to look to see how they can take their schools forward. So, PPA is an important aspect. We have looked at ways in which we could increase PPA. You would know that an independent report—independent of Government—recently talked about a shortened school week that would then allow a single day for PPA. It was not welcomed with much enthusiasm by members of your own benches, I must say, but we need to look at creative ways to ensure that teachers do indeed have that PPA time.