, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Census 2021—Welsh Language Results
I thank Samuel Kurtz for those many questions. I'll do my best to deal with most of them, if I may. I'm not going to reiterate what I said about the importance of looking at the data in its context and looking at the other sources of data as well in terms of…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Census 2021—Welsh Language Results
It's quite natural, of course, for people to ask what these latest results mean for our work. First, I want to assure you of our complete commitment to 1 million Welsh speakers and to doubling the number of us who use Welsh every day. And it's important also…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Census 2021—Welsh Language Results
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've already said that the census headline figures were disappointing and not what we'd hoped to see. Having said that, it's important to acknowledge that there's more to the story than just the headlines, and there is more to…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: School Improvement and the Information Landscape
I thank the Member for that question. On the second point, I'm very clear that we need to move to a more standardised way of doing that, and that's absolutely one of the priorities that I'll want to see taken forward in our response to both the social finance…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: School Improvement and the Information Landscape
Very important questions. The sampling question is an important one. The sampling is only one part of the process. So, the national monitoring plan is one part of the new ecosystem, just to give some comfort to the Member. At present, in terms of planning…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: School Improvement and the Information Landscape
I thank the Member for those questions. I'll try and answer as many of them as I can. I think the key point is that there is a distinction to be drawn between data for accountability on the one hand and data for assessment and self-improvement on the other…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: School Improvement and the Information Landscape
It's absolutely clear to me, Dirprwy Lywydd, that using a wide range of information is crucial to supporting evaluation and improvement. Isolated pieces of data, or out of context, should not be used to judge performance or compare schools. I welcome Estyn’s…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: School Improvement and the Information Landscape
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Curriculum for Wales offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to radically reform what and how we teach, in order to support the educational progress of our learners, their well-being, and their life chances as well. But, to…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Well, I think that everyone agrees that our children should be at school receiving their education, but nobody takes these decisions to strike lightly. We have four unions, and two have had votes in favour of industrial action, but whatever the thresholds the…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Well, these are serious matters that deserve better than political knock-about in this Chamber. His mischaracterisation of the education system in Wales is consistent with that of his colleagues on those benches. Unlike the Conservative Government in…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
I'll be meeting with teacher and head unions tomorrow, along with local authorities, who are the employers, to discuss the outcome of ballots and discuss next steps. I am committed to working with partners to secure a resolution to the dispute, and this…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Yes, you're welcome to do that.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
We're looking currently at whether we can introduce one-off payments to some of the organisations that receive funding from us—payments to cope with the crisis. And perhaps we'll be in a situation to say a little bit more about that in a few weeks. But the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
The general grant review—is that what you mean?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
We've had discussions over a long time with S4C regarding their provision in general, to support our objective as a Government. Each part of the Welsh ecosystem has a part to play to contribute to that. One of the things that we have been discussing is what…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Yes, it is, and we have been able to increase capacity from time to time so that we can—. I think I mentioned the run rate of about 12 settings a year, but we have been able to increase the budget year on year. So, in one year, they opened 20, for example…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
The sabbatical scheme is one of the programmes that we have in terms of increasing the skills of teachers in the English sector. I was in Cardiff recently meeting a cohort that had been on the course, and it's fantastic not only hearing their fluency in the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
I can. A number of things have happened since we had that report. Perhaps the biggest thing in terms of value is the £400,000 fund that we've established with Cwmpas to create co-operative social enterprises. That's a challenge fund, so that people can have…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Thanks for that. It varies from area to area in terms of the use of that funding. So, when we allocated the budget originally, every local authority in Wales bid for, and received, part of that fund, which, in itself, is very important, I think. But, as I…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
I think there's a difference between marketing and promotion, I would say. Promotion is an integrated thing, isn't it? A lot of the stuff we've been discussing today creates an ecosystem of various elements promoting each other. So, I think promotion is…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Happy to do so.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Yes. Not just a priority, but we have had a specific development in this area recently. If you look at what we're doing with Microsoft, we're the first Government in the world to work with them to create Teams that's bilingual. So, for the first time ever…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
It will be sufficient; I can assure you of that.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Well, like all organisations, you have to work on your priorities within the budget available.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language
Yes, there is an increase of 4 per cent, which is in line with the increases to other commissioners, and as you said, the purpose of that is to secure staff salaries. There's also a capital allocation for information technology in the most part. I am…
