Welsh Lib Dems lift veil of secrecy on school funding

4.48.23pm GMT Tue 8th Nov 2005

The Labour Assembly Government has been forced to lift the veil of secrecy over the state of school buildings in Wales, thanks to a Welsh Liberal Democrat motion passed in the Assembly this afternoon.

The Welsh Lib Dem motion, supported by other opposition parties, looked at the backlog of repairs and maintenance. It will force the government to undertake a survey by July 2006 of how much it will cost to bring schools up to scratch.

Education spokesman Peter Black, who led the debate, said: "I am pleased that we were able to win the vote today, but disappointed that we had to force the minister to take this course of action. A Minister with a serious commitment to giving children a proper learning environment would not have needed such prompting.

"We all want our children to have the best possible education experience. To achieve that, we have an obligation to provide them with the best possible learning environment. We want our teachers to provide stimulating lessons, without worrying about the condition of their classrooms, or the safety of sports fields and communal areas.

"Today's vote will compel the government to finally put a cost on what is needed to give teachers the tools they need to do the job."

The motion also forced the government to re-instate the small schools fund - which allows local authorities greater flexibility when considering the future of small schools, often in rural areas. It had been created by the Welsh Liberal Democrats during the Partnership Government, but diluted under Labour rule.

Former teacher Mick Bates said: "No-one is pretending that all small schools should be kept open regardless of how many children are there and regardless of what the quality of education is. But to pretend, as the government sometimes seems to, that a school is simply a 9-4 educational institution without ramifications any further is to ignore the wider community role they play.

"Re-instating the Special Grant Report means that it won't be spread around different grants, each with a minor sop to the idea of small schools, and it means that it won't be used as an add-on to the teachers' workload agreement. This clear separation will show whether or not they are being funded properly - without this separation it suggests that the Labour Assembly Government is under-funding both.

Assembly leader Mike German added: "Yet again, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have proved that we can deliver, whether in government or in opposition. This victory today will ensure that we have a measure of the work we need to do to bring school buildings up to scratch, and to give local authorities more flexibility when they consider the pressures facing small schools."

Notes:

Eleanor Burnham also spoke in the debate, highlighting conditions in schools in her North Wales constituency.

Motion in full:

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales recognises the importance of safe and modern school facilities to their communities and

1) Instructs the Education Minister to commission a full, detailed, and up to date assessment of the school repair and maintenance backlog and to bring that assessment to the Education subject committee by July 10th 2006

2) Instructs the government to ringfence the resources available to small schools within one special grant regime, to end the practise of counting funding for small schools with workload agreement funding and other initiatives, and to recognise the contribution, both educationally and socially, that small schools make to their communities