, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, the Member raises important questions about how we make sure that school premises are in fact able to be used by the community, and I think, in a sense, looking at them as community-focused schools puts the onus on the school when, in fact, the whole…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, I thank the Member for outlining the work of John Frost School, which sounds fantastic, actually, and I know that, in her area, there are a number of schools doing really good work in becoming community-focused schools, and I thank them for that. She's…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Community-focused schools are at the heart of our agenda to tackle the impact of poverty on attainment. Funding for family engagement has increased to £6.5 million this financial year, and we continue to provide funding to trial the appointment of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
I have read the article, and a number of other articles by Richard Wyn Jones on this issue. The strategy is one that has been consulted upon with the universities, with the vice-chancellors, and others, to ensure that it is appropriate. This is an issue that…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
The Minister for Economy and I, along with our officials, hold regular discussions with the higher education sector on the opportunities and challenges related to research, development and innovation. Our universities have been fully engaged with the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, there’s a broader purpose than that to the establishment of Educators Wales. In terms of that company the Member mentioned, I’m not going to comment, because I don’t know all of the details and the range of services that they might provide. But, at the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
There are two points to that question. The first point: the Member is right to say that the learned societies don't oppose the combining of the three into a double award. The point that the Member is making is right on the single award GCSE, but we currently…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, actually, Wales was the only UK nation to improve in all three PISA domains the last time. For both science and for maths, Wales's scores were not considered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to be different to those of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, the Member is categorically incorrect; that is not the position of the learned societies, the learned bodies. She made this point, incorrectly, to the First Minister last week, she's making it again, incorrectly, to me this week. It is categorically not…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, since the Member misquoted the science bodies the last time she put this point to the First Minister, maybe it would be helpful for me to clarify the actual position. So, these decisions are taken by Qualifications Wales. And the point that she makes…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
[Inaudible.]—parents, actually, were at the cyhoeddi as well, and described it to me as a very joyful occasion and a very inclusive occasion. So, it obviously attracted lots of local people, but also people from slightly further afield. I think it's really…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
I totally reject the divisive politics that are behind the question of who can recite the Mabinogion and who can't. [Laughter.] But, in all seriousness, the Member raises an important question. It is not for me to tell anybody whether they're a Welsh speaker…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
We provide an annual update on progress against the aims of our Welsh language strategy, 'Cymraeg 2050: a million Welsh speakers', in our annual report. The next report is due during the autumn of 2023.
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, as I say, we are in constant contact with authorities across Wales, including Denbighshire, and I was speaking with the cabinet member there, Gill German, very recently about free school meals in particular and other areas in which we're helping make…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
My officials continue to engage with Denbighshire County Council, as they do with all local authorities, as we implement our universal primary free school meals commitment. To support the roll-out, £2.1 million in capital funding has been awarded to the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Yes, and it's an element of ambition, but it's also an element of capacity, isn't it? So, you have to look in tandem at both things. We have agreed in the co-operation agreement that there is significantly more funding now going to the Coleg Cymraeg…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
That's been interpreted for you. We can't have a situation where the academic pathway, if you will, is available equally in Welsh—even though it's not completely equal at the moment, but it's closer to being equal—and then that you have vocational options…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Well, the progression is vital. We need to ensure that there's a pathway—we've just been talking about parity of esteem, whatever that is in Welsh. I can't remember, I'm afraid—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Okay. Sorry, I was misunderstanding your question. So, there’s a separate discussion that Vaughan and I and Eluned have had about how we—. Because we all, in different ways, fund different elements of research, for example. Obviously, my portfolio has the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Well, I'm not sure I'd see it quite in that way. So, the commission will have one of the largest budgets—probably the largest budget outside of the Government apart from the NHS, I think, from memory. So, it's going to be a significant budget holder. The…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
We're going to invite them to be members of the programme implementation board, so they'll be part and parcel of that. Obviously, some of those individuals that you named already are. And the crucial thing at this point is it's a limited time period, but it's…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
The establishment period effectively runs from September this year to the end of March/beginning of April next year, so it's a seven-month period, it's a limited period, but, obviously, it's an important period. As you will know from my having written to the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
Can I just say, Chair, that it's quite a shift in the model, to be fair to physical universities? It's quite a shift in the model to move from where we are now into mass part-time provision. It's just a very different way of delivering education. So, that's…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Joint ministerial scrutiny session on post-16 education and skills
We've had a massive increase in part-time higher education in Wales—it's completely fantastic, actually. And not to make the comparison, but really, completely, the rate of growth has outstripped other parts of the UK, because we've been quite deliberate…
