Warning over schools crisis

Children's futures are being put in jeopardy due to the education crisis in Powys according to a leading teaching campaigner.Mary Compton said that continual underfunding, fewer teachers and increasing class sizes are threatening to damage the prospects of the county's schoolchildren.

Now a campaign group to fight education cuts in the region is to be re-launched.

The former president of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), who now lives in Presteigne, was speaking at a public meeting at County Hall, Llandrindod Wells.

And she is also to head the county-wide campaign group. The group, which was last pressed into action 20 years ago, has been reformed to push for more cash for schools and a better deal for pupils.

The relaunch of Powys Against Cuts in Education (PACE) comes in the wake of fears over not only primary school education and the proposed closure of primary schools, but up-and-coming reviews of both secondary and sixth form education in Powys.

The meeting was organised by the NUT and attended by professionals, parents, governors and others concerned about education.

Miss Compton said: "The time has come when our pupils' futures are being put in jeopardy by continual underfunding and increasing class sizes following from the reduction in the teacher workforce in Powys."

Kirsty Williams, Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire, travelled from Cardiff to report on the discussions held in the Welsh Assembly over budget settlements for Welsh councils.

A recent delegation of elected members from Powys secured an increase in the Welsh Assembly Government settlement from one to two per cent.

However, the improved figure still puts Powys at the bottom of the Welsh settlements this year with next year's 1.2 per cent settlement already sanctioned.

Graham Haslock, Powys NUT secretary, said, with Powys schools facing record deficits, delegates at the meeting agreed to form a committee to oversee the effects on the education service of both the below-inflation increases in funding and the schools' modernisation programme.