13. Will the Minister make a statement on secondary educational standards in Wales? OAQ(4)0397(ESK)
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you, Minister. We have seen damning results in report after report on the Welsh Government’s extreme failure and let down of an entire generation of schoolchildren in Wales. The Estyn report is a sad indictment as a collection to that list of reports. It says that education has not improved in the main, that the proportion of secondary schools branded ‘unsatisfactory’ increased from 14% to 23%, excellent schools remain a small minority, and two thirds of secondary schools and half of primary schools are in need of follow-up inspections. What are you actually doing and what real actions are you taking to actually look after our schoolchildren in Wales, because, clearly, it is not all rosy, as you maintain that it is in Rhyl? That is not advocated across the whole of Wales.
Huw Lewis: Well, clearly, Presiding Officer, the Member has recently woken up to the debate around the future of education within Wales and has clearly not been listening to the debate up until now, but I do welcome her concern. That Estyn annual report was a critical document, in my view, and as I have said repeatedly—and I agree with the Member on this, at least—every educationalist in Wales, and everyone who cares about Welsh education, should take a long hard look at that document. There is nothing mysterious or difficult to grasp in terms of the strategic steps that Estyn suggests the schools should take in order to improve the situation, which I have never painted as rosy. We are in a serious situation when it comes to the priority that we need to extend to school improvement.
However, my challenge to political colleagues and to others within this debate is not just to grasp the importance of the need for school improvement but to make constructive suggestions, if they have any, to contribute towards that debate. I have transformed the school support and school improvement network throughout Wales, and we also have Schools Challenge Cymru, which I announced just the other day. All that the Member’s party, thus far, has suggested and has contributed to this debate is that we should cut schools budgets by 12% and introduce some mysterious best part of the grammar school philosophy back into the system, and that is the sum total of the Welsh Conservatives contribution to this debate thus far, and they have marginalised themselves, as far as I can see, in this debate.