CYMDEITHAS yr Iaith have called on the Welsh Government’s Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle, to take advantage of the current review of the School Organisation Code to provide clear guidance and demonstrate that the Government is serious about the policy of presumption against closing rural schools.
This call came ahead of Ceredigion Council’s Cabinet discussion tomorrow (Tuesday, 3 December) on a proposal to reverse a previous decision to hold statutory consultation on proposals to close four of the county’s rural Welsh-language schools.
According to the movement, such a statement from the secretary would avoid repeating a situation similar to what has happened in Ceredigion.
Ffred Ffransis, on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Education Group, said: “The situation is now completely muddled as the Cabinet will discuss deleting a statutory consultation which closes on the same day (Tuesday, 3 December), and if the responses are treated as an “informal consultation”, we will by default do what should have been done in the first place, which is to hold a broad discussion from the outset, exploring every way to avoid closing a rural school, before deciding on a proposal.
“Unfortunately, the Council believed that they could comply with the Code by going through the motions, deciding first to close schools in order to make savings to their budget, and then name alternative options simply to reject each one with the same generic sentence.
“Lynne Neagle needs to state clearly that the Government is serious about the policy in order to avoid a similar situation in the future, which has caused so much distress for parents, children, governors and for the council itself in Ceredigion.”
While introducing the presumption against closing rural schools in the autumn of 2018, the Education Secretary at the time, Kirsty Williams AM, made the intention behind the principle absolutely clear in a discussion on it in the Assembly Chamber.
She said: “Local authorities in those areas, if they have a school that’s on the list, should start on the basis that closure is the last option and they should seek every opportunity through a variety of ways to keep those schools open…
“Presumption against a closure and the option to seek alternatives to keeping a school open, again, should not be left to the official consultation period, but should be employed by the council before they make any decision to go out to consultation on the future of the school’.”
Mr Ffransis added: “The current revision of the Code is an opportunity to establish clarity, so that no local council, such as Ceredigion, will be under any false impression in the future.”
