Shutting small rural schools doesn’t save large amounts of money, says a new report highlighted by Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Paul Davies.
Mr Davies, who is Shadow Welsh Education Minister, pointed out the limited financial benefit of closing small schools following the news that Mathry School is to close next year.
“School reorganisation in certain parts of Wales is causing some concern for parents and for the wider community,” he told Jane Hutt, the Minister for Business & Budget at the Welsh Assembly.
“A few weeks ago, the organisation called Hyrwyddo Ysgolion Bach—Promoting Small Schools published a report on an inquiry into the cost of small primary schools in Wales, which was undertaken by Cambridge Policy Consultants.
“One of the conclusions in that report was interesting in that it concluded that the total cost of keeping small schools open is fairly limited.
“For example, in a hypothetical analysis that sees all 22 local authorities close all their schools with less than 90 pupils, it would save only 2 per cent of the total primary school budget”.
Mr Davies has now called on the Welsh Assembly Government to consider the findings of this report. He said “In light of this report I believe that the Assembly Government should now consider these findings and the Education Minister should bring forward a statement on the issue of school re-organisation”.
