Carwyn Jones: ...or Parliament, as we will call ourselves, no doubt, in time—into the era of devolved revenue raising. Llywydd, as Members will be aware, Kirsty Williams joins the Cabinet with responsibility for education, a policy area on which she has spoken with great passion and conviction over many years. We know, of course, that schools are important, but are, by no means, the only important aspect...
Mark Drakeford: Investment of almost £26 million has been approved to date for Islwyn through the twenty-first century schools and education programme. The funding is earmarked for a new 1,050-place comprehensive school for the area.
Llyr Gruffydd: ...is very significant with every £1 invested bringing benefits of up to £74 over a lifetime according to the National Training Federation Wales, compared with £57 when investing in higher education or a degree, maybe more specifically. So, would you agree with me that apprenticeships represent one of the best examples of the effective use of European structural funds in Wales,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: ...immediate price to pay. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested around £30 billion could be wiped off the economy if we leave—£30 billion that currently is being spent on our health and education systems. And it won’t be the likes of Boris and Gove who’ll suffer; it’ll be the most vulnerable and the poorest in our society who will bear the brunt of these cuts. The...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...get more young people into medicine and wanting to become a GP. I don’t know how many of you saw the University of Nottingham study of 2014, which was truly shocking: 50 per cent of all further education colleges and sixth forms had nobody, not a single person, applying to medical school over a three-year period—not a single person. Many more that did have applicants only had maybe one...
Alun Davies: ...in workless households, parts of the Valleys continue to have high levels of economic inactivity, high levels of deprivation, and high levels of unemployment. This, in turn, has had an impact on educational attainment and long-term health. The impact of the UK Government’s welfare reforms, from the introduction of the bedroom tax to cuts in disability benefits, has been felt most acutely...
Kirsty Williams: Financial education has been embedded in the school curriculum in Wales since 2008. It features in the statutory mathematics programme of study and the national literacy and numeracy framework. We have also asked Estyn to review the quality of schools’ financial education provision to inform development of our new curriculum.
Alun Cairns: ...held in the Assembly. The Children and Social Work Bill will make changes to adoption to tip the balance in favour of permanent adoption, if that is the right solution for the child. The Higher Education and Research Bill will cement the UK’s position as a world leader in research, ensuring that we maximise the £6 billion a year investment that we make in research. Welsh universities...
Llyr Gruffydd: ...rhan o ymdrech i leihau'r baich sydd, i rai pobl, ar y proffesiwn addysgu ar hyn o bryd? I warmly welcome the fact that the Government is to seek to develop a national strategy on small and rural schools, and I do agree with the Minister that federation does offer a model and an alternative option in many contexts in order to tackle some of the challenges facing many of our schools. But,...
Mark Drakeford: ...a gafodd eu gwneud yng nghyfnod y weinyddiaeth flaenorol. Llywydd, these adjustments include revenue allocations announced earlier in the year of £10 million supplementary funding to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, £2.3 million funding for flood management, £1.3 million of business rate relief support for businesses in the Port Talbot enterprise zone, and £7.7 million...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...stay in Wales. Look at the figures from the Royal College of Physicians, who agree with us wholeheartedly on that need for home-grown medical training: only 30 per cent of students at Welsh medical schools are from Wales, compared with 55 per cent in Scotland, 80 per cent in England and 85 per cent in Northern Ireland. And, yes, we would support a quota system. Quotas have worked well in...
Carwyn Jones: ...it focuses on the main pledges in the Welsh Labour manifesto, it also includes the key elements of the agreement with the Liberal Democrats, under which Kirsty Williams became Cabinet Secretary for Education, and also the priority areas agreed with Plaid Cymru before the summer recess. Members will also see that it is a very different document to the one we published five years ago. I have...
Mark Drakeford: ...sy’n gallu siarad Cymraeg am y dyfodol. It’s not for me, as local government Minister, to set targets that are in the province of the Minister responsible in this area nor in relation to schools, but I do agree with the general point that the Member was making. Local authorities play a very important role in relation to the Welsh language. That’s why my predecessor commissioned a...
Mark Drakeford: ...to transforming the expectations, experiences and outcomes for all learners, including those with additional learning needs. The forthcoming introduction of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill will be a key milestone in the transformation journey that is already under way.
Julie Morgan: Yn yr Eglwys Newydd, mae gennym gwmni o’r enw Schools into Europe, a dywedodd y cyfarwyddwr yno wrthyf fod gostyngiad wedi bod yn nifer yr ysgolion sy’n cynnal teithiau tramor, ac mae’n credu bod hynny’n rhannol oherwydd y dryswch ynghylch canllawiau diogelwch teithio, ac ysgolion yn mabwysiadu eu rheolau ad hoc eu hunain ynglŷn ag a yw’n ddiogel i deithio neu beidio. Felly, yn...
Alun Davies: I think the Cabinet Secretary’s clear in her vision and she’s in the Chamber and listening to your comments this afternoon. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and the First Minister made such a statement during the National Eisteddfod, and we as a team of Ministers have been discussing this since that time. I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Education is about to make a statement.
Bethan Sayed: ...the arts at a grass-roots and local level; a strategy for artists’ fees and terms for the visual and applied arts in Wales; developing the music industry in Wales; funding for and access to music education; bilingual support for deaf, hard of hearing and people with communication difficulties. Now, this doesn’t mean that we’ll ignore all but the most popular issue. How the public...
Mark Drakeford: ...summer was a two-footprint model. One based around city regions, covering strategic transport, land-use planning and economic development, and another aligned to health boards for services such as education improvement, social services and public protection. At this point, Dirprwy Lywydd, I have an open mind on the specifics of geography and function, but I am clear that these...
Mr Simon Thomas: ...of key questions as well around the few facts and figures that are in this programme for government and what they actually mean. There’s a commitment to an investment of £100 million to drive up school standards, but it’s not clear whether this is an extra £100 million, or includes the already increasing pupil deprivation grant, and whether the cost of reducing infant class sizes,...
Mark Drakeford: Education remains a central priority for this Government.
