NDM7218 Welsh Conservatives debate - School Education

NDM7218 Darren Millar (Clwyd West)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2018 PISA results.

2. Regrets that:

a) there has been no statistically significant improvement in Wales’s PISA scores in reading and maths since 2006;

b) Wales’s science scores are significantly worse than in 2006;

c) Wales is ranked bottom of the UK nations in reading, maths and science;

d) Wales is the only UK nation to score below the OECD average in all PISA measures.

3. Calls upon the Welsh Government to:

a) acknowledge its failure to improve education in Wales;

b) apologise to pupils, parents and schools for letting them down;

c) guarantee that additional resources arising from increased spending on schools by the UK Government will be invested on schools in Wales.

The following amendments have been tabled:

Amendment 1 - Rebecca Evans (Gower)

Delete all after point 1 and replace with:

Notes that Wales is the only UK nation to improve in each domain.

Welcomes:

a) Wales’s best ever scores in reading and maths, and improvement in science;

b) a reduction in the gap between our most disadvantaged learners and their peers;

c) the improvement in performance of high performing students.

Believes the improvement in PISA scores is testament to the hard work of teachers and pupils across Wales.

[If Amendment 1 is agreed amendment 2 will be de-selected]

Amendment 2 - Rhun ap Iorwerth (Ynys Môn)

Delete point 3 and replace with:

Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) continue along the path of revising the new curriculum and allowing it to take root as part of efforts to raise standards;

b) guarantee that the necessary resources are available to schools in order to improve working conditions for teachers and attract more new teachers to the profession.