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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Education Minister to be challenged on school fitness target
July 11, 2006 12:00 AM
Peter Black at Bishop Gore School, Swansea
The Welsh Assembly Education Minister will be challenged tomorrow to say how she is going to meet her manifesto commitment to make all schools fit for purpose in the face of a £749 million shortfall.
The £749m gap between available resources and required funding has been identified by an authoritative survey by accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers on behalf of the Welsh Local Government Association. It is based on a comprehensive assessment of the maintenance backlog and 'fit for purpose' requirements of all 22 local authorities in Wales.
The report concludes that no Welsh Council will reach their 'fit for purpose' target by 2010 and only just over half of them will have achieved this goal by 2015. Mr. Black will use the debate on school funding tomorrow to challenge the Minister on this issue.
"The Government has a firm manifesto commitment to bring all school buildings up to standard by the end of the decade," said Mr. Black. "This report has demonstrated for the first time the uphill struggle they face in bringing that promise to fruition. This has all the hallmarks of another classic Rhodri Morgan U-turn. They abandoned free care for the disabled because they could not afford it. Will they now abandon this pledge too?"
"The Minister must make her position clear and tomorrow's debate on school funding is an ideal time for her to do so. We cannot have another decade of children being taught in damp and draughty classrooms, teachers struggling to cope with unsafe playgrounds, outside toilets, dry rot, falling masonry and varying classroom temperatures and parents forced to send their children to be educated in buildings not fit for the purpose they are being used for."
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