Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 8 February 2023.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:35, 8 February 2023

If the Member wants to know what a demoralised teaching profession that doesn't feel valued by its Government looks like, she just needs to look over the border at what's happening in England, which is cataclysmic in terms of retention and recruitment generally. So, that is what a Conservative education policy looks like. We can see it happening before our very eyes. 

What we have in Wales—[Interruption.] The Member is muttering; I'm happy to answer the question. What we are doing in Wales, as she will know—we've debated in this Chamber many times, and I know that she has strong, if sometimes perhaps not fully-informed, views on this—is we have a 10-year plan to recruit Welsh-medium teachers, working together with our partners across the system, and which is creative and tries new approaches to improve the numbers of Welsh-medium teachers coming into our profession.

We have financial incentives to encourage those in difficult subjects, where recruitment is a challenge not just in Wales, not just in the UK, but internationally. So, some of those are in maths, some of it is in some of the science subjects. We have arrangements in place to encourage young people into the profession to teach in those areas, because I want to make sure that, in the areas that I agree with her are key areas, we have a full complement of staff able to make sure that our young people get the education they need.