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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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Government abandon pledge on school fitness
July 12, 2006 12:00 AM
Peter Black with school children
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Peter Black, has accused the Labour Assembly Government of abandoning its manifesto pledge to make all school buildings fit for purpose by 2010 after the Finance Minister today, downgraded it to a mere aspiration.
In Labour's 2003 Assembly Manifesto they promised that 'by the end of the decade over £1 billion will have been spent ensuring that every school in Wales is fit for our children." In the document entitled 'Wales: A better Country', also published in 2003, Labour pledged 'an annual program of funding for school buildings….so that all are fit for purpose by 2010.' Yet speaking in the Assembly today, Finance Minister Sue Essex denied that this was a promise. Instead she claimed it was just an aspiration.
"It seems very clear to me and many other observers that these are firm pledges by the Labour Government," said Mr. Black. "Whenever we raise this issue Ministers reel off a list of statistics indicating how much money has been spent on school buildings. Yet the independent Pricewaterhouse Coopers report published last week has shown that they are just scratching the surface. That document identified that there is a spending gap between planned spending and actual need of £749 million if schools are to be all made fit for purpose. It also stated that no local Council will have all their schools up to this standard by 2010."
"Welsh Assembly Ministers are very keen to rely on so-called evidence-based decision making and often point us to outcomes as the best way of measuring their success. In this case the evidence tells us that Labour have made a clear pledge, they have not put enough money into the pot to meet it and that the outcome will be a continuation of unfit schools well beyond the 2010 target date."
"Trying to downgrade that commitment to an aspiration will not fool anybody nor will it help teachers, children and parents whose schools contain damp and draughty classrooms, unsafe playgrounds, outside toilets, dry rot, falling masonry and varying classroom temperatures."
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