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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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Minister must give assurances on funding for Foundation phase roll-out
December 4, 2006 12:02 AM
Peter at Gwyrosydd School
Plans by the Welsh Assembly Government to extend the Foundation Phase method of teaching three to seven year olds through play to all private and state schools in Wales by 2011 will not work without sufficient additional funding, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Peter Black, has said.
Mr. Black was commenting on the announcement today by Education Minister Jane Davidson that Foundation Phase pilots had been successful and that she was intending to roll it out across Wales. An evaluation report of the pilots will also be published today.
"This is a major change in the way that young children are taught," said Mr. Black, "and it is important therefore that it is properly resourced and evidenced. This initiative will involve significantly smaller class sizes for three to seven year olds and a massive investment in teacher training and in new staff. It is vital therefore that the Minister ensures that the funding is available to meet the cost of these extra resources from the start and that local Councils are not left to pick up the tab. I will be looking very carefully at the evaluation report to see what it says about costs so that we can get an idea of how the Assembly Government is meeting that challenge."
"My other concern is about the way that this scheme is being evaluated. This is a long term investment in the education of children and it will be difficult to properly gauge its success or otherwise until those children who have participated in the pilots enter secondary school. There must be a continuous evaluation of the new system of teaching so that we can continue to learn lessons from it. The Foundation Phase is designed to give children a better start so that they do better later on in life. How these children do at 16 and 18 therefore will be critical in determining whether this new teaching method has succeeded."
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