Welsh education consensus breaks down

Welsh lessons are a compulsory part of the curriculum

By BBC Wales Education Correspondent, Julie Barton

Education policies are high on the agenda for all the main political parties fighting the Welsh Assembly elections.

Expectations about what the assembly will acheive are also high.

The most obvious responsibilty facing assembly members is money. First they will decide how much of the £7bn budget will go in the education pot.

Then they will determine how much goes to local authorities to spend on schools, the amount to allocate for repairs to school buildings; and how much for further education colleges.

They will also give money for special schemes like those to improve literacy, and they will divide what is left over for projects such as school music.

Pay controversy

What is taught in schools will also be the responsibility of the assembly, and it will have powers over the way education is organised.

One burning issue facing members almost immediately will be how teachers are paid. There are high hopes within the unions that controversial plans for performance-related pay will be rejected.

But that will mean the assembly taking a different line from England. Its powers lie in secondary rather than primary law making. Politically how far it is able or willing to forge its own path will depend on the balance of power between the parties in Cardiff and Westminster

There is no doubt in many minds that it is through its impact on education, both policies and spending, that the assembly will be most closely judged.

Policies

These are the education policies of the main parties contesting the elections to the Welsh Assembly:

Welsh Labour Party

Labour has pledged to spend an extra £844m on improving education and training at all levels in Wales over the next three years.

It plans to extend nursery education to every three-year-old whose parents want a place, and to expand the network of out-of-school clubs.

It also plans to establish a General Teaching Council for Wales to raise standards in the profession.

In the field of post-16 education, Labour says it will break down the existing barriers between academic and vocational courses. The £12m-a-year it plans to save by cutting bureaucracy and competition would be re-invested in the sector.

The party is also committed to providing an extra 36,000 extra student places in further and higher education.

Plaid Cymru

Plaid says its priorities for extra expenditure on education are the early years and adult education.

The party proposes that the assembly should work with teachers and "not continue the Tory approach of attacking and undermining them".

It is calling for the establishment of a new Education and Training Council for Wales to bring together curriculum development, assessment, advice, and teacher training.

Plaid plans to establish a pilot scheme for the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification, a home-grown alternative to A levels.

The party also wants to see the development of better links between the work of higher education institutions and economic development.

Welsh Conservative Party

The Conservative Party is proposing to give parents the right to let their children opt out of compulsory Welsh lessons during their final two years of secondary school.

The policy of compulsory Welsh was introduced by the last Conservative government, but it is now described as counter-productive by the party.

The controversial new policy has been angrily attacked by the other political parties for breaking the carefully constructed consensus on the teaching of Welsh in schools.

Conservatives also want to see education spending passed directly to schools from the Welsh Assembly, rather than being allocated by "bureaucratic and wasteful" local education authorities.

And the party proposes the introduction of a national scholarship that would pay for talented children to attend independent schools.

It is also calling for a thorough review of teacher recruitment, training, careers and salaries.

Welsh Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats want to see maximum class sizes of 30 for all primary school children and make nursery education available for all children from the age of three within the assembly's first term.

They are also proposing an emergency programme to bring school buildings up to a "21st century standard".

The party is committed to children learning a modern foreign language alongside Welsh at primary school, and making "citizenship" a core component of the curriculum.

It also wants a pilot project to examine the feasibility of the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification for 16- to 19-year-olds.

The Liberal Democrats say they would make more money available for the teaching of children with special educational needs and for all-Wales organisations that assist adult learners and provide careers advice.