Not another brick in the wall?
Not another brick in the wall? For now, at least. Councillors in Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council feel that three year olds "don't need no [full time] education," to misquote Pink Floyd.
In January 2014, Rhondda Cynon Taf (“RCT”) councillors, who were faced with the need to cut £70 million from their budget over four years, took the decision to increase the age at which children could start full-time school within its authority area from 3 to 4 years old, causing nothing short of uproar amongst the parents of those affected.
To put the decision into perspective, the situation throughout much of Wales is that a child becomes eligible for a part-time Early Years Placement, funded by the local authority, in the term after the term in which they turn three. Thereafter they continue to be eligible for part-time nursery provision until the start of the school year when they turn five, at which time they can commence full-time school. The position in RCT prior to the January decision was that children could attend at school on a full-time basis from the age of three, which was clearly of significant assistance for any parent who wished to return to work or retrain after a period of absence from the workplace. Parents who had made plans based on the availability of these free placements suddenly found themselves, following the decision in January, in a situation where the free provision of a placement was halved, and they were somehow having to meet the shortfall. RCT offered to ameliorate the problems by saying that the new arrangements would not come into effect until September this year, rather than April as had been suggested. They also agreed that full-time placements could start in the term after the term in which the child turns four, still earlier than across much of the rest of Wales.
These concessions did not satisfy the parents who formed a campaign group - Parents Against Cuts to Education - and mounted a legal challenge to the decision which was heard by the High Court initially sitting at Cardiff, with judgment being handed down in London last week. The application for judicial review of the council's decision was successful, it seems on the basis that the council had breached its statutory duties in the way it exercised its functions. There is no official report of the judgment as yet.
The argument reminded me of the "too much, too soon" campaign, run by the Save Childhood Movement last September, which was supported by a number of leading educational academics who advocated structured learning taking place at a much older age than currently. Arguably, RCT's change of policy on full-time school places could be said to be beneficial to the children if this research is correct. The current government favours emphasis on school readiness, so RCT's intentions may be thought to fly in the face of that. Either way, the reality is they probably can't win.
The council is considering its current position in the light of the judgment, including the opportunity to appeal. As the fact remains that cuts need to be made to the council's budget, I suspect it is not the last we will hear of the proposal. There may well be another attempt to place that particular brick back in the wall.
