Agenda item

·         Bangor University Proposal ‘Re-connect’.

·         Kirsty Williams, letter of response.

BANGOR UNIVERSITY OFFER - 'RE-CONNECT'

Councillor Menna Baines declared an interest in the changes that were afoot at the Education Department of Bangor University.  These matters caused concern in the County regarding the future of teacher training and teaching through the medium of Welsh and bilingually in Gwynedd.  

The Chair responded that the information was now public and there were redundancies at the university, this would have a huge impact on Education in general, particularly through the medium of Welsh. 

The Chair noted that at the previous meeting a request had been made for statistics on the number of pupils in the County who sit GCSE and A Level in Religious Education.   It was possible to use these statistics to monitor and see the number of students who may move on to follow the subject and teach.

See the statistics below:

The Chair requested that the Assistant Education Resources Officer and SACRE Clerk, sends these statistics to Members for information. 

The Chair and Councillor Menna Baines, noted that they had visited Joshua Andrews and his colleague at the University in Bangor in December 2018.  Work on providing materials on training courses for teachers in Religious Education had been completed in Welsh and English, they were also about to launch a website with all the details.  They had contacted the Headteachers of secondary schools with this information, in order to pass on the materials to the teachers.   

RESOLVED:

Keep an eye on this matter and report back to the committee in November 2019.

KIRSTY WILLIAMS, LETTER OF RESPONSE:

Response to a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Education with guidance from the Education Administrator and the Committee Chair, regarding concerns about the lack of Welsh medium revision materials for the new GCSE Religious Studies course.

Comments raised:

Members noted that the letter caused concern, and highlighted three main points:

·         Publishing lesson books from English into Welsh is a commercial enterprise.  

·         The decision to venture to create a resource or not is a matter for the publishers. 

·         I have committed to improving the provision of relevant and timely resources in Welsh and English for our learners.  

The above points were not a robust response to the original letter sent by Garem Jackson to Kirsty Williams.   The impression given to Members from the above points was that the choice and timing of printing Welsh language materials was a decision for the publishers.

RESOLVED:

To write back to Kirsty Williams, Minister for Education in Wales and the Shadow Minister Siân Gwenllian (Assembly Member for Arfon).  The Committee requested that the Assistant Education Resources Officer and SACRE Clerk writes to them conveying our concern as a statutory committee about the reply received.

It was added that the letter should be returned to the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee noting the concerns raised at this committee meeting.