8. Will the First Minister provide an update on Welsh Government plans to enhance educational facilities in Islwyn? OAQ51782

Band A of the twenty-first century schools programme will see investment of over £58 million in schools in Caerphilly county borough, with over £28 million spent in the Islwyn constituency. A funding envelope for Caerphilly of over £110 million for band B, beginning in 2019, has been approved in principle.

Thank you. The Welsh Government also has announced an extra £73 million allocated to the twenty-first century schools education programme. This brings the total amount invested to £3.8 billion. First Minister, as you witnessed yourself when you formally opened Islwyn High School, the infrastructure of Welsh schools is being reimagined and rebuilt to serve future generations. How then can this radical, transformative initiative be maintained in the years ahead, so Wales never has to witness again the decaying school buildings of the Thatcher and Major eras, when the Conservatives were last in charge of educational Government policy in Wales?

Many of us were in school in the 1980s, and despite the best efforts of our teachers, we were taught in buildings that were falling apart, portakabins—I remember one portakabin where there was ivy growing up the inside of the wall because there was a gap between the floor and the wall. I saw heating systems that didn't work. I saw no new schools being built. Compare that to now. Compare that to now where we have over 150 schools and colleges in Wales that will be refurbished or replaced in the five years to 2019. That's 150 schools and colleges that, under the Tories, would have been left to decay. 

Finally, Mohammad Asghar. 

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Further to that question, could the First Minister advise when details of which schools and colleges in south-east Wales will be modernised under band B of the twenty-first century schools and education programme will be announced, and how will these building schemes address the growth in demand for Welsh-medium education in my region especially?

Well, I can say that, as far as Caerphilly is concerned, Y Gwyndy campus is complete, Islwyn High School has opened, Pontlottyn and Abertysswg replacement schools—construction is under way there—and, of course, there is the new Idris Davies primary school, which will be built as well, just to give some examples. But, as I said to the Member earlier on, it is rich for the Tories to say, 'Well, give us an example of schools being built' when they would have built nothing; they would have built nothing at all. One hundred and fifty schools and colleges have been rebuilt, built or refurbished by Welsh Labour that the Tories would never have touched. 

Thank you, First Minister.