On Monday the Conservative MP for Monmouth, David T C Davies MP, spoke out against the appalling PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results for the Welsh education system.
The study showed an education system in crisis after years of mismanagement by the Welsh Labour Government. The PISA results ranked Wales as 36th for Science, 41st for reading and 43rd for Maths out of the 64 countries who have participated in the study, trailing far behind all their UK counterparts.
Welsh Education Minister, Huw Lewis, admitted on Boxing Day that the findings of the PISA study were unacceptable and apologised to school pupils in Wales.
In Education Parliamentary Questions, David Davies MP asked why the PISA results for schools in England was so much better than the results in Wales, which had the worst results in the whole of the UK.
David said “Since 1999 the Welsh Labour Government have presided over an education system that is not fit for purpose and has been letting pupils and families across Wales down. This has led to the disastrous PISA results and an abject apology from Education Minister, Huw Lewis, is simply not good enough.
I want to know if the Welsh Government will see the PISA results in England and take note of how the Welsh education system can be improved. If they refuse to take on board what lessons they can learn from England, I’m afraid that Labour are choosing cheap political point scoring over the education of children in Wales.
I will be writing to Huw Lewis and will continue to demand a proper explanation for the PISA results, as well as asking what lessons he has learnt from the study”.
A copy of David’s Parliamentary Question and response by the UK Education Minister can be found here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2014-01-06a.14.2&s=speaker%3A11719#g14.3