Welsh Conservatives today revealed that Labour’s Welsh Education Minister has made just four term time visits to schools since his appointment and he has failed to travel more than 30 miles away from the Welsh Government’s offices.
Answering a question to Shadow Education Minister Angela Burns, the Minister listed six schools he has visited since his appointment on 26th June 2013. However, one was to Maesteg Comprehensive School on 22nd August to do media interviews about GCSE results, while a visit in mid-September was to a building site where Penarth Learning Community is being built.
Of the Minister’s school visits, none is more than 30 miles from the Assembly and the Minister hasn’t visited any schools west of Maesteg, north of the Rhondda or east of Rumney.
Angela Burns AM said, “I am surprised that the Education Minister has only made four visits to open schools where he can speak to staff and pupils in their normal surroundings in the four months since his appointment.
“You would have thought that any minister with a new brief would be eager to get a quick command of their portfolio by visiting schools to see first hand what issues teachers are facing.
“How can the education sector have confidence that the minister is making developing informed policies and making decisions based on the needs of teachers, parents and pupils if he isn’t listening to them?
“Carwyn Jones’ Education Minister is supposed to be the Minister for the whole of Wales, yet he’s only visited a handful of schools within half an hour’s chauffeur-driven trip from Cardiff Bay.
“Ministers need to get out of their Cardiff bunker and start listening to teachers, who know what is best for their local school, in communities across the whole of Wales, including Gwent, Mid, West and North Wales.
“This is a lazy attitude to engagement with the education sector, which must change if the Welsh Government is serious about driving up standards after 14 years of decline under successive Welsh Labour governments.”
