Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 18 March 2020.
Well, the Member is right; we need to identify and support teachers in all their professional development needs. If I can be slightly breaking the rules as well this afternoon, as we all seem to be doing, Siân Gwenllian did raise the issue of initial teacher education and those students who will be on placement. Members here will know that ITE students need to complete a certain number of hours to gain their qualification. I have confirmed with all our ITE providers that those usual rules have been suspended. The vast majority of hours have already been completed, and I am not prepared to miss out on those talented students getting into our workforce for the sake of a few extra hours in our schools. So, I want to reassure them that they will not be disbenefited because they cannot complete their work placements in schools. We need them in our teaching workforce and we will not jeopardise that position.
The Member is absolutely right—I'm sorry if I haven't made it clear previously—when we think about the repurposing of our school estate, we will absolutely be looking at providing opportunities for those people who we need to continue to work, in its widest possible sense, to be able to avail themselves of opportunities to have their children attend meaningful, purposeful activity, probably out of a school building. We'll be working very closely with the local authorities to identify where are the best places to do that. We will be calling on all our professional resources—teachers, youth workers, sports development workers, arts practitioners—to ensure that that time is fun, it's meaningful and it's useful and can give parents real confidence so that they can do what they need to do and, my goodness me, do we need them to carry on doing what they are doing and not to be distracted about who is looking after their children and what their children are doing.
That is absolutely—. That's one of the reasons why we've kept schools going as long as we have, because they have been playing that vital role. We cannot say it too often, can we? We're ever so grateful. We know our healthcare workers are on the front line, but our teachers have been doing their bit as well to support this national effort.