Posted by ComfortablyNumb | Posted in Comment | Posted on 26-09-2010
Tags: education, flintshire, flintshire county council, schools
Once again the state of Flintshire schools is in the news. Why am I not surprised?
Some years ago I used to be a primary school governor. A thankless task really, but at times rewarding. However, the school had to overstock on buckets because each time it rained the roof leaked like a sieve. Not exactly conducive to developing a modern learning environment is it? Patching the roof was money down the drain and came right out the school’s own budget and therefore diverted away from education.
Thankfully, the school now has a new roof. But, what a disgrace that there are children who went through that school not knowing a time when the school’s roof didn’t leak.
So now Flintshire County Council has a £40m backlog in school repairs.
Of course they blame someone else, anyone else bar themselves. Flintshire has always undervalued and under invested in education for years and years in my view. Even when the Labour government was throwing money at education, Flintshire chose not to pass it on. Pity the money wasn’t ring-fenced.
But, this all has a knock on effect and to me and it’s a major one. Education is the route out of poverty. If our Council has allowed our schools to crumble then obviously they are not too bothered about this universally accepted notion.
As I write, Flintshire children on free school meals are less likely to obtain GCSE grades A*- C grades than their more well off classmates. Micheel Gove, the new Education Secretary recently stated that, “rich dumb kids do better than bright poor kids.”
Recession or no recession, we live in a highly prosperous country. It is utterly shameful that class and wealth dictates educational outcomes. And it’s happening right on our doorstep.
The irony is that tax payer’s money is spent like a drop of a hat to install new CCTV cameras and locking young people up for minor crime and anti-social behaviour – ultimately the result of poor education.
Sadly, I have to agree with you. So why not help change Welsh schools into Academies?
Our children should have the same rights to a decent education as the rest of the country.
Welsh schools receive less funding than English schools. Why?
Remove the penny-pinching middleman (council) & start seeing schools flourish.
The Council employ a Head Teacher to manage the school & then won’t let them manage.
Just for starters;- Look at http://www.bog-standard.org to see the state of toilets in schools all over the country.
Flintshire CC haven’t even supplied enough toilets for the children to use. Ask them how many toilets the law states there should be per quota of children, they can’t/won’t answer.
That is just the basic need of kids. what else is missing from schools?
At least if the schools change to academies, they would be given the funds to do urgent long-overdue repairs, more than the council would do for them. And what is more the Council won’t be sending out a series of people to view the work, assess the work, cost the work, plan the work, price the work, re-assess if they really have to do the work, someone to do the work, another to check the work. All of which has bumped up the price of the work by umpteen-fold!
If the Council did the work as it was needed, instead of having paperwork shifters, they would probably save money. It’s no good trying to patch up what really needs re-placing, it’s money down the toilet.
Ask your MP
WHY DON’T WELSH SCHOOLS HAVE THE RIGHT TO BECOME ACADEMIES?