Following the publication of a new report on education in Wales from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, Laura Anne Jones MS outlines her concerns about Wales’ widening attainment gap.
Over the Easter holidays, parents will be hoping the weather holds up so they can plan activities with their children, and teachers will be hoping for some time away from marking and lesson planning to unwind after a busy term.
However, as children and teachers begin to tuck into some chocolate eggs (some even daring to eat a whole egg in a sitting!), it is it is important that we reflect on Labour’s record on education in Wales and how they have failed our children for far too long.
Figures show us that attainment has either declined or stagnated every year since the end of the pandemic and continues to worsen. Additionally, the attainment gap was widening long before Covid.
Rather than tackle the real issues facing schools, the former Labour Education Minister instead focussed on costly reforms and changes such as the £130,000 spent on the consultation to reform the school holiday, which nobody asked for and has been rejected by every teaching union in Wales.
In Wales the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils is much wider than it is in England and there has been little to no progress in addressing this since 2009.
The cost of this mismanagement of education in Wales became abundantly clear as schools were breaking up for Easter, when we saw a new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies on education in Wales.
To put it bluntly, the report was damning. It highlighted the failure of Labour over the past 25 years and outlines concerns that parents around Wales share, including myself. Sadly, my concerns always fall on deaf ears when I raise them with Labour Ministers, who are more interested in fiddling around the edges instead of rolling their sleeves up and improving educational attainment. I can only hope that the Labour Government will finally listen after such a serious critique of their record.
There is a mountain of problems within education in Wales. Yet rather than address any issues facing education, Labour continuously get distracted with pet projects and social justice initiatives. Getting the basics right should be their first priority.
In order to understand where Labour are getting it wrong, we need to look into the report. One of the main focus points on the report is the latest PISA results. In Wales, the declines were particularly large, erasing all the progress seen since 2012, and results declined by more in Wales than in most other countries in 2022.
Lower scores in Wales cannot be explained by higher levels of poverty. According to the PISA results, disadvantaged children in England score about 30 points higher, on average, than disadvantaged children in Labour-run Wales.
The report highlights that low educational outcomes in Wales are not a reflection of Labour’s appalling record on child poverty in Wales, a different ethnic mix of pupils, statistical biases or differences in resources between the rest of the UK. This is purely as a result of Labour’s reforms.
In Wales the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils is much wider than it is in England and there has been little to no progress in addressing this since 2009. The gulf between pupils in Wales and in England can only be explained by the differences in policy and approach.
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The Labour Government must look into the recommendation to pause or cancel their damaging educational reforms, including the GCSE curriculum planned for 2025. They cannot plough ahead with these reforms in light of the report’s conclusion that these reforms run the risk of widening inequalities, increasing teacher workload and limiting future education opportunities. By not heeding this warning, Labour would be irresponsible and risk further damaging education in Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives have been clear on how we would prioritise children’s education by getting 5,000 more teachers back into classrooms, to ensure smaller class sizes, and to reduce the workload for teachers and boost the attainment levels in Wales.
I have also argued that we should reintroduce a form of standardised testing across schools and local authorities in Wales to help parents and teachers monitor learner progress at key stages and compare performance.
We would ensure that those with additional learning needs are provided with the right support sooner, with no cuts made to additional learning needs in the 2024-25 budget. Children with ALN are being left behind due to Labour’s cuts and this cannot be allowed to continue. Every pupil should be able to attend school on a level playing field.
I have also argued that we should reintroduce a form of standardised testing across schools and local authorities in Wales to help parents and teachers monitor learner progress at key stages and compare performance. This will ensure any discrepancies can be caught and corrected as soon as possible.
It is important that we develop an enhanced programme for more able and talented learners. Students cannot be allowed to feel as if they are stagnating in a school environment and those who are more able and talented need to be challenged in order to continue their progress.
Time after time I have highlighted the negative impact that violence and behavioural issues are having in our schools. In order to address this, I have called for establishing a national helpline for staff dealing with violence, and the necessary support to be put in place for pupils and staff alike.
More recently, I will be launching plans to restructure education, with the introduction of Free Schools and Academies in Wales, which would ensure independence from local authority control and greater collaboration between schools, who would work together, instead of in competition, sharing best practice, a now proven recipe for success if we look across the border at the marked differences in educational standards between us and them.
Labour cannot continue to ignore the plight of education in Wales and simply hope to proceed with their damaging reforms. They must go back to the drawing board and tackle the issues plaguing education, like rises in Additional Learning Needs and absenteeism, as well as educational outcomes. I sincerely hope that the new First Minister will take the opportunity to look at this again and take the recommendations from the report into account.
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