Extract from Wales Assembly debate on national school workforce plan - April 18

Llyr Gruffydd AM:...I will start by referring to a BBC report back in December that demonstrated that school budgets had declined by some £370 per capita for each pupil in real terms over a period of six years. Now, it's no surprise, therefore, that some of the teaching unions are warning, as the National Education Union did recently, that there is a hidden financial crisis in our schools, although some would suggest that it isn't that hidden anymore. Estyn also, in its current annual report, which was published a month ago, points at the direct impact of those cuts, through highlighting that there are fewer qualified teachers involved in the foundation phase in Welsh schools now. But we know, of course, that what cuts to school budgets mean is job losses among teachers, and then, as we find in some of our work as a committee, they have to use other pots of money, such as the pupil development grant and so on, to try to narrow that gap...

To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE