2. What is the Welsh Government's policy on free schools? OAQ54361

Llywydd, the Welsh Government remains committed to a comprehensive education system that ensures everyone, no matter their background, has the opportunity to reach their potential. There is no evidence that free schools have raised standards in England, while the Sutton Trust has found that the policy has failed to fulfil its purpose.

Thank you, First Minister. Do you agree with me that the Prime Minister's intention, as he put it, to create 30 free schools across the UK—perhaps that's an improper comment—shows his ignorance of devolution, because, as we all know in this Chamber, education is devolved? Will the First Minister continue then to assure the people of Wales that we will not see the marketisation of education in Wales via the establishment of free schools? 

I thank Carwyn Jones for that supplementary question, Llywydd. I hope he's right; I hope that it was simply that the Prime Minister didn't understand devolution. That would be one thing. But I have an anxiety that behind that statement may lie some intentionality. Some Members here will remember the speech that Michael Gove made in Edinburgh during the Conservative leadership election, when he said that the way to cement the United Kingdom was for the UK Government to set up, in devolved areas, schools and hospitals for which they would have responsibility. It was, I thought, an idea designed to lead to the disintegration of the United Kingdom, and let us hope that when the Prime Minister referred to 30 free schools across the United Kingdom he wasn't echoing that particularly unhappy idea. Education is devolved to Wales; we have deliberately, intentionally, and over the whole time of devolution turned our back on the idea that creating a market in education is the best way to drive up standards. It absolutely doesn't. It simply results in those who have advantages already becoming even more advantaged in future. Our education policies have always been based on our belief that every child should have an equal chance to make the very best use of all the talents that that child possesses and that it should not be an accident of the sort of school that they go to and the type of education that they receive that should determine those chances in life. That's what free schools do. That's why we won't be having them in Wales.

I think it's a bit rich of the former First Minister, frankly, to criticise the education policies in England when, under his leadership, the Government delivered the worst Programme for International Student Assessment results that this country has ever seen and we're still at the bottom of the UK league tables as far as English, mathematics and science is concerned. Now, one of the reasons for that—. You said you want all young people to have equal opportunity: the reality is they don't have equal opportunity here in Wales, because there's a funding gap of £645 per pupil, per year, according to the unions, that needs to be addressed.

Now, the one good thing, of course, First Minister—the one good thing—is that the UK Government announced a significant spending boost for education very recently, which means that as a result of that spending boost Wales will have £1.2 billion to spend on education in addition to the current sum over the next three years. Can I ask you: what action will you take to close that funding gap, eliminate it completely, to give a level playing field so that young people here can have the opportunity to prosper?

Llywydd, the Member's contribution is a tissue of outdated, and therefore highly misleading, assertions. The figure that he quoted is from 2011. You'd think he might have updated his figures a little since then. You'd think he might have read the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who said that the gap between funding in England and Wales had been virtually eliminated, and that was because of cuts, cuts—[Interruption.] The gap had been virtually eliminated because of the cuts that had been made to education budgets in England. [Interruption.] Well, you can say 'nonsense', Darren, if you like, but it's the IFS who said that, not me. [Interruption.] The IFS—and they reported again yesterday. Good idea, I think, to update your figures and, perhaps, your understanding.

Were we to get money on the scale that you suggest—and we're certainly not guaranteed to get it; we have a one-year settlement here in Wales, whereas your Government has been prepared to offer three years in England, but not to Wales or to Scotland. If they hadn't spent some of the money before we got it—£50 million to fill the gap in teacher pension contributions, which should have come from the UK Government and which they've refused, despite the rules of the funding formula, to provide to us—and if we did get that money, Llywydd, we will not waste £140 million on free schools that never opened, or opened and closed. If we get money here, we will be investing it in a way that will support those young people in our schools who delivered those record results in A-levels and in GCSEs in August of this year. That's the truth of the matter, and the Member's attempt, as ever, to throw some pall over the achievements of children in Wales does them no good, but it does his party no good at all.