School ‘to lose a teacher per year to pay off debt’

THE first Welsh-language comprehensive school in Aberystwyth faces losing a “teacher per year” as it struggles to pay off the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig’s new replacement premises in Llanbadarn Fawr were built using a PFI agreed with Ceredigion County Council in 1999 with a 30-year lifespan.

A meeting of the council’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee discussed a report on the PFI’s latest status from Steve Johnson, corporate lead officer for finance and procurement.

Also at the meeting was the school’s chairman of governors, Mark Rees, who told members the school had approached the local education authority (LEA) on a number of occasions about issues about how the current PFI contract is managed and the “impact it has on the management of the school”.

Mr Rees said: “There’s serious negative impacts on the finances of the school that then have a knock-on effect on its future, and indeed the future of Welsh-medium secondary education in Ceredigion.”

He added that the LEA’s contribution to the PFI costs had not risen with inflation in the last five years so the school was having to find increasing amounts to “meet the shortfall”.

Funding this meant that savings “equivalent to one teacher per year” had to be made.

“We estimate as things increase, by 2021 it’s going to cost us two teachers within each financial year.

“It’s frightening and a completely unsustainable situation for the school to deal with,” he added.

Mr Johnson’s report outlined the background to the forming of the PFI, which is considered to have been the best option at the time for Ceredigion and the “desperate need to develop a replacement school”.

It now has 12 years to run and councillors were advised that terminating the agreement would be costly and considered a last resort.

PFI credits of £38m have been brought back into the authority over the years.

Maintenance and facilities management, including catering, are covered by the PFI agreement, leaving the governors without control over areas other schools can alter to make savings.

Discussion will be held to see if income could be generated by allowing the school to be used by third parties as a way of easing the financial burden.

Principal Gwenallt Llwyd Ifan, due to retire this summer, said the PFI’s cost was £623,000 and the £60,000 shortfall came from the school budget.

“It’s increasing year on year,” he said. “Next year it will be £67,000.”

“Staffing levels are suffering and the impact is on the pupils. This is a problem all schools in our county have,” said committee chairman Cllr Ifan Davies.