Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 19 January 2021.
I would like to wish Meilyr Rowlands well on his retirement and thank him for all his assistance over recent years. Meilyr has been a strong voice for community schools, and that vision has an important role as we reflect on what needs to change in coming years.
From the inspections that Estyn managed to undertake—around 60 per cent of what was planned—we do see a picture that is similar to previous years. Standards are either excellent or good in around 80 per cent of primary schools, but only in around 50 per cent of secondary schools. To look at that at the other end of the telescope, there is scope to be concerned about 20 per cent of our primary schools and half of our secondary schools, and I think Suzy Davies was right to highlight this ongoing problem, which goes beyond COVID.
The chief inspector is of the view that the lessons learnt in dealing with the pandemic could help to strengthen education in Wales in the long term. Well, time will tell, of course. It does depend on the level of investment. The inspector is concerned that the core skills of pupils in literacy and numeracy have declined generally because of the interruption on education, and he mentions that helping learners, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged learners, to catch up will be a major task that will need to be undertaken in future.
I've been calling on you and your Government to publish a post-COVID recovery plan for education, and to make every attempt to secure substantial funding to support such a programme. I think you're duty bound to create an ambitious plan and then to make the case for the level of investment required to deliver that. As I said, it'll be a major task, as the inspector says, and every major task needs investment. The £29 million has been allocated by your Government, and everyone's very pleased about that, but over and above that funding, what is your investment plan in order to restore education in the longer term? And specifically, what are your intentions in terms of investing to help those vulnerable learners and learners from disadvantaged backgrounds?
With most pupils learning from home, digital learning, of course, is a key factor. Estyn does highlight the fact that pupil engagement with distanced learning is varied from around 95 per cent of engagement in the best-case scenario to as little as 20 per cent among certain providers who face the greatest challenges. So, I would like to know how your Government is going to support schools and colleges that have faced the greatest challenges—those in the 20 per cent category that I mentioned. How are you going to assist those to move forward in terms of the lack of engagement that has been a problem with some pupils?
The final point I'd like to make is that Estyn has found that almost every school has provided support to staff and that leaders are greatly concerned about the well-being of staff in terms of the sustainability of current arrangements and the longer term impact. There are a number of factors that have detrimentally affected the well-being of headteachers and senior leaders, as well as the other school staff, including in response to changing guidance, concern about the well-being of colleagues and pupils, and the additional workload brought about on operational issues, very often. So, what is your plan for dealing with the significant pressures facing staff in our schools? You've mentioned providing a grant to Education Support, which is a charity operating across the UK, I believe, and they are working on a support package for the school workforce in Wales. What scale of grant has been provided to this charity, and could we see exactly what kind of support we should be expecting to see from them?
And finally, can you provide some clarity on what will happen with Estyn inspections post September? They were supposed to recommence in September after a break in terms of making provision for the curriculum. Would it be fair to expect schools to cope with inspections once again after the summer, given all of the challenges that they face, and also your desire to drive forward the implementation of the new curriculum—work that has possibly fallen behind?