MUCH remains to be done to ensure that by 2024/25, no schools in Wales are classed as ‘bad’ in terms of the state of their buildings.

That is a key finding of a Wales Audit Office report on the Welsh Government’s 21st Century Schools and Education Programme.

By the end of March 138 projects, comprising 132 schools and six further education schemes, had been approved - of which 59 had been completed - out of 176 planned projects. These formed the programme’s Band A, for 2014-19.

This has so far involved £1.6 billion of investment into these projects - based on a 50 per cent funding split between the Welsh Government, and councils and further education establishments - and is described as a major improvement on previous arrangements for funding school buildings, which was based on an annual grant system.

The programme is a long term investment project, in contrast to the old funding system, which encouraged a short term, patching up approach, as councils were often reluctant to start major school projects, involving reorganisation, with no guarantee of funding in the long term to ensure the process could be completed.

In Gwent’s five council areas, seven projects have been completed (three in Torfaen, two in Newport, and one each in Monmouthshire and Caerphilly), 17 approved, and 26 are planned. Investment tops £300 million.

The report warns that there will remain a significant number of schools needing replacement or major refurbishment when Band A ends.

The Welsh Government is currently developing Band B, to run until 2024, but the report cautions: “It is difficult to be sure about the scale of change in the overall school estate and the remaining challenge.

“By the end of 2019-20 almost all schools that were classed as bad in 2010 should have been either replaced or brought up to satisfactory or good condition.

“However, since 2010 many schools have deteriorated and are now in poor or bad condition.”

The report states that the programme is being managed “generally well” but improvements are needed, and it also concludes that the Welsh Government could have got better value: “We estimate that had industry standards for school sizes been applied throughout Band A, the programme could have saved between £28 million and £35 million.”