The Welsh Liberal Democrats are today calling for opposition parties to unite and vote for an annulment motion that would stop the Welsh Government's plans to delay elections in Anglesey.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have tabled an 'annulment motion' to the Order that delays the elections in Anglesey. This is the legal mechanism available to the Assembly to call in pieces of secondary legislation which the Assembly doesn't ordinarily get to vote for.

Aled Roberts AM has today highlighted the importance of the Welsh Pupil Premium after statistics have shown that pupils eligible for free school meals generally suffer from lower education attainment than those who have never been eligible.

The statistical release titled 'Achievement and Entitlement to Free Schools Meals in 2011' stated that the performance of pupils eligible for free school meals is lower than their non eligible counterparts at all key stages and in all performance measures. Looking at the core subject indicator, the gap has narrowed over the last six years at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. However, at Key Stage 4, the gap in performance has widened.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Aled Roberts led a Short Debate on improving acoustics in classrooms in the Senedd on Wednesday. The debate seeks to highlight the difficulties that school children with a hearing loss face when trying to follow their teacher in a classroom with poor acoustics, and calls for more robust legislation to ensure that in future all new classrooms are built to comply with acoustic standards.

As the row over funding in Higher Education rumbles on, Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Aled Roberts has called for an urgent and thorough discussion on HE fees. The call comes in the wake of University of Wales Newport cutting its fees in line with advice from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW). However, rather than the drop heralding an increase in the number of students attending Newport, the university is concerned that the criteria the Welsh Government is using to allocate places will actually result in a significant drop in numbers.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Aled Roberts has called on Education Minister Leighton Andrews' to provide more detail about his decision to scrap the Child Development Assessment Profile (CDAP) and replace it with a "tool that better supports children's early learning and development".

Welsh Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Aled Roberts has welcomed today's announcement that the banding of primary schools is to be delayed until September 2014. The decision comes in the wake of a report published by the Chief Inspector for Education and Training which highlighted a number of weaknesses in the accuracy of primary school assessments.

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Education in the Assembly, Aled Roberts, has reacted to today's publication of Estyn's Annual Report by repeating his calls for the Education Minister to recognise that the achievement of individual pupils and the support that will be provided by new regional consortia must be key factors in raising school standards.

Statistics released by UCAS show the number of applications to Welsh universities for 2012 has fallen compared to the previous year.

Following the deadline on 15 January, the number of applicants received were down by 9.3% on 2011 figures. There was a 12.3% (36,195 applicants) fall from English applicants, which is just over half of the total applications to Welsh institutions. Scottish numbers were down 39.5% and Northern Irish 15.3%, with Welsh applicants dropping by 4.5%.

Aled Roberts, Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales, has welcomed today's commitment from the Heritage Minister, Huw Lewis, that he will support calls to improve the provision of Welsh language and Wales-related television programming in North Wales. Currently, many areas of North Wales cannot receive Welsh programming through BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C. The situation has been exacerbated as a result of transmitter changes in England after Wales' digital switchover.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Government to work with the Coalition in Westminster to ensure that comparable school expenditure statistics can once again be made available.

Last week, it was announced that the 'Local Authority Budgeted Expenditure on Schools 2011-12: Wales and England Comparison' was to be discontinued because of changes in education policy in England meant it was not possible to produce comparable figures.