Education cuts a crisis in the making

“EDUCATION, Education, Education” said Tony Blair at the beginning of his Labour premiership (1997-2007).

Education of our children is as crucial today as it was then.

Jenny Rathbone should explain to voters why the Labour Government of Wales has drastically reduced funding for Welsh schoolchildren.

Will the Welsh Government publicly commit to a revision of the damaging cutbacks which Welsh Labour members of the Senedd failed to challenge?

“The “Age-Weighted Pupil Unit” is the funding given to a school for pupils up to the age of 16 years old. Pupil funding in Wales across all secondary age groups (years 7-11) decreased by an average of 1.9% per year group (2020-2021) and will similarly decline in the projected figures for 2023-2024.

A cumulative decrease of 5.7% is predicted by 2024. In Year 11, this cumulative decrease will be as much as 6.3% declining from £201 per pupil this academic year to a predicted figure of £3,936 a loss of £310 per pupil, given the predicted increase in student numbers.

This is a crisis in the making for headteachers, governors and indeed pupils themselves.

The outlook for Welsh junior schools is no better. In 2020-21, funding for pupils in years 7-9 was £3,043 per pupil. By 2023-24, this will reduce to £2,878 per pupil, a decrease of 5.4% in funding.

All this at a time when the level of inflation in 2023-24 is predicted to be 2%, thereby lowering the ‘spend’ on education even further.

This level of funding is well below the funding guidance of the Westminster Government.

(Is it any surprise that the level of performance of schools in Wales is lower than the national UK average?)

The recent assertion of Jenny Rathbone that the Senedd’s Education Bill is about putting children first is contradicted by these figures which speak for themselves.

She must now explain to parents and children, and to the voters at next week’s Senedd election, how Welsh Labour can condone this policy of savage cutbacks in education.

If she does not speak and give satisfactory answers, the voters themselves will speak on May 6. Nothing less than the future of our children is at stake.

Rev Father Sebastian Jones Parish Priest

St Alban’s on the Moors Splott, Cardiff