Call to join forces in school closures fight

SCHOOLS are being urged to join forces to stave off the threat of closure in Carmarthenshire.

Under draft new proposals from the Assembly, governors would be able to take the lead when it comes to linking up with other schools in their communities, known as federating.

Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith has hailed the plans as "revolutionary" and said they could strengthen the position of schools at risk of closure under the local authority's controversial modernising education plan (MEP).

Under the MEP, several rural schools have closed in recent years due to reasons such as falling pupil numbers.

Under the new Assembly scheme, primary schools cannot only federate with each other, but also with local secondary schools.

Its emergence has sparked calls for Carmarthenshire Council to halt the MEP programme until the Assembly plans have come into force, which is expected to happen some time next year.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith education spokesman Ffred Ffransis said: "We urge governors not to await the dreaded knock on the door from the local education authority informing of their school closure.

"We want them to seize the initiative and contact neighbouring schools to draw up their own plans for the future.

"These new draft regulations give governors the chance to take the initiative for the first time."

Mr Ffransis challenged Carmarthenshire Council over the MEP, adding: "We have a right to know if Carmarthenshire Council intends to press ahead with mass school closures, despite all the new possibilities."

Backing Cymdeithas yr Iaith is Plaid leader on the county council, Peter Hughes Griffiths.

He said: "I will be asking Plaid to request at the council's executive board a postponement of all MEP activity in light of the Assembly proposals.

"Nothing should happen until the federating scheme is decided upon."

Mr Ffransis said it was vital schools held immediate talks on the possibilities federating with other schools may offer.

The council's head of special schools projects Bryan Stephens said: "Cymdeithas yr Iaith is referring to a consultation document prepared by the Assembly Government requiring responses by October 24.

"It states that federation 'could be of particular benefit to small schools or schools in more isolated rural areas' and that schools that choose to federate would continue to be individual schools, keeping their existing identity.

"For example, matters such as the delegated budgets for the individual schools in the federation would remain as they are at present.

"Essentially, this is a return to the arrangement commonly in place in rural areas in the last century (1980s and 1990s) when it was acceptable for single governing bodies to be responsible for a cluster of small schools."