Class sizes going up, GCSE options being cut, school trips axed and not enough money to buy books - that's the reality of education in Wales in 2023. Teachers giving evidence to Senedd members also said they are seeing lower reading ages for children entering secondary school and that schools, if they were in the private sector, would be bankrupt.
Headteacher of St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School in Barry, David Blackwell, said: "We've had to cut our option column at GCSE from four to three, we've taken out six subjects because we can't staff them." He says the breadth of the curriculum has been reduced. "I can't deliver music when I only have nine children picking that as an option".
He says those children are then being forced to pick something else, adding: "That's really sad but it's getting increasingly worse". The evidence was being given as part of a petition calling on a review into "inadequate funding for schools in Wales". A primary school headteacher told the committee he had £700 left in his teaching materials budget for the rest of this financial year, but needs £3,000.
Headteacher of Barry Island Primary School Matthew Gilbert said: "If we want children to be happy and have a love of learning and the basics to be literate and numerate to force ahead and be successful, it's a challenge at the moment with the funding".
Dr Martin Price, chair of Vale School Governor Association, who started the petition calling for a review into the inadequate funding for schools in Wales, said they are "in effect, quite a proportion of schools are running on empty, or in private sector terms, are bankrupt". The petition had 7,007 signatures.
Class sizes are increasing, he said. "Research says that class size isn't the determining factor of children's outcomes, it is a significant factor. If you have a class of 34, 30 or 28 that makes a difference."
