Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates has challenged the First Minister in the Chamber over the current funding formula for education, which sees Powys receive the 12th lowest settlement for secondary school funding despite being the largest county in Wales.
Questioning the First Minister in the Chamber, Mr Bates stated:
“The recent Deep Rural Localities report highlighted that one key problem facing deep rural areas is the centralisation of services. According to the report, 75% of respondents considered a school to be ‘essential’ in their local area.
“Yet in Powys funding difficulties are forcing schools to consider merging and centralising to cut costs. This will mean increased travel for pupils, more pressure on parents, problems in accessing after school clubs, as well as threatening community cohesion and the sustainability of our rural communities.”
In response to the issue raised by Mick Bates, First Minister Carwyn Jones stated that Powys comes 12th in terms of funding received for education and that it is up to local authorities to determine how this is spent.
Mr Bates adds: “Powys is the largest county in Wales with serious challenges in terms of sparsity and infrastructure, which is clearly not recognised by the Welsh Government funding formula. The current problems being faced with secondary education expose the weakness in the formula as it does not recognise that a one size fits all solution does not work and what may work in an urban area often is not the solution for rural areas.
“In Montgomeryshire we have some top performing schools with an excellent standard of education, but we need the flexibility to retain our 11-18 secondary schools, enhance the collaboration and communication between our secondary schools so that they can deliver the demands of the Learning and Skills Measure and reduce the need for our pupils to travel further and further to get to school.”
