Rural School Closures

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 19 September 2018.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 1:42, 19 September 2018

(Translated)

I think my views on supporting rural schools are well known. I sympathise with councils in all parts of Wales that face impossible budgetary scenarios and I do think that the Government has to secure adequate funding to support innovative methods of keeping schools in our communities and providing support to create multi-site area schools, which is something that I support. One element that puts pressure on education budgets, as we’ve heard, is the backlog of maintenance work, and I hear what you say as Cabinet Secretary, but, without doubt, the trend is there in the twenty-first century schools programme towards building new, larger schools, which don’t necessarily work in rural areas. So, can you, as Cabinet Secretary, give a commitment to seek a new package of finance that is substantial and specifically for this purpose, so that the condition of a school building in rural Wales isn’t such a strong driver when it comes to making decisions on the future of schools?