Tomorrow (Tuesday 14 May), the new Cabinet Secretary for Education will make a statement in the Senedd on “Our National Mission: delivering on Wales’ education priorities”. Lynne Neagle MS has already said a “sustained improvement in attainment” will be her main focus. Here are some key points to be aware of:
- The new First Minister has pledged to “deliver excellence in education, closing the attainment gap and addressing absenteeism and disruptive behaviour".
- For many years, the Welsh Government has had, in various forms, a ‘national mission’ to improve education. It forms a key part of its current Programme for Government (PfG). We’ve written previously about the extent to which progress is being made.
- There are considerable challenges for the Welsh Government’s improvement and standards agenda. These include disappointing PISA results, GCSE attainment gaps and a decline in literacy and numeracy levels coinciding with the pandemic.
- The Cabinet Secretary has referred to the “scaffolding” supporting schools. Regional education consortia have been central to this for over a decade but an ongoing review of school improvement services has signalled a proposed end to the regional approach.
- Also high on the Cabinet Secretary’s priorities will be implementing major reforms: the Curriculum for Wales and the Additional Learning Needs system. Both are being scrutinised by the Senedd’s Children and Young People Committee, which heard from Lynne Neagle MS on 8 May.
- There’s also big reform in post-16 education and training. The new Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (CTER) will be operational from August. We’ve previously written about the background to CTER.
- Ten Cabinet-wide commitments sit beneath the ‘well-being objective’ relating to education in the Welsh Government’s PfG. 8 relate to school age, 2 to post-16. There are also 27 commitments at Cabinet Secretary / Ministerial level relating to education and Welsh language.
In Brief by Michael Dauncey, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament