High streets and school spending on the agenda
THIS weekend I will be attending the National Plaid Cymru Conference at Swansea and taking part in various discussions.
I will be the speaking at an event on the future of our town centres. I will refer to the successful Bangor Food Festival held last weekend as an example of local people and businesses coming together to invigorate the high street.
I will also refer to the work of Hwb Caernarfon which is currently encouraging us all to support Strydy Plas, Caernarfon, as the best street in the UK (www.the great british highstreet.co.uk)
People’s shopping patterns are changing, and to be successful, town centres have to adapt, but I firmly believe they have a future as an integral part of our social and cultural lives.
I look forward to the discussion and to learning from the experiences of other towns.
I will be presenting a motion to Conference which, if passed, will form the basis of Plaid Cymru’s Action Plan for Education.
Entitled “Let our Teachers Teach”, the motion will focus on 10 areas that Plaid Cymru would prioritise for urgent attention in our attempts to improve the educational outcomes of our children and young people.
According to schools inspectorate Estyn, pupils at half of Wales’ secondary schools have not met their full potential by the time they leave school.
Thousands of young people are being let down by the system, and this can’t be allowed to continue.
Much needs to be done to allow teachers to focus on their pupils.
There is currently too much bureaucracy and too many unnecessary interventions.
Due to year on year cuts, there are fewer and fewer teachers in the system. Meanwhile, many of the most experienced are leaving, and recruiting new teachers is a huge problem.
At the root of the problem is insufficient funding for schools, which means education is not being delivered effectively, impacting on pupils.
There has been an 8.0% real terms decrease in spending per pupil in 2010-11 and more than half of Wales’ secondary schools are in deficit.
Plaid Cymru has consistently argued schools need more money.
But more money alone is not enough and I very much hope my 10-point Action Plan will be supported on Saturday.
I will also be chairing an event of the need for legislation to ensure pupils throughout Wales get a Welsh-medium education.
I look forward to a busy Conference!