Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 25 November 2020.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 2:35, 25 November 2020

Well, we're rolling out lateral flow testing in the education community as quickly as they are being made available more widely to Wales. So, all of our universities are taking part in the pilot programme, ahead of the end of the academic year, and we have now the Merthyr Tydfil programme, where we are looking to deliver lateral flow testing at school, in our high schools and in the local college, and communicating to parents who live in the Merthyr Tydfil area, but whose children attend school outside of Merthyr Tydfil, encouraging them to come forward and take part in the lateral flow testing community programme. We are looking at extending that into areas of Rhondda Cynon Taf, given that, again, that is an area of high incidence, and we are learning the lessons and the potential barriers and the difficulties of delivering this programme within the school setting. 

Can I say, having met last week with the headteachers of the high schools in Merthyr, the principal of the college and the chief education officer in Merthyr, they are all very committed to making this technology available in their schools? It's not only potentially an important part of understanding what the disease is doing in the community, but it could also help us, with the situation that Suzy Davies just referred to, in allowing children to get back to school more quickly, rather than a 14-day period of isolation, if they were deemed a contact. A daily test may allow them to keep being in school or a teacher to keep being in school, as opposed to a 14-day isolation period. So, we're looking at it in terms of not just a wider community benefit, but actually as a way of limiting disruption going forward.