Following Spokesperson’s Questions to Labour Education Secretary, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education, Natasha Asghar MS highlighted the Labour Government’s appalling record on education and the recent Estyn report which reveals that too many students are not reaching their full potential when it comes to mathematics in Wales. This damning verdict comes following the inspectors’ findings that maths standards in particular across the country are too low.
Estyn’s report pointed to aspects of poor teaching being the reason behind pupils’ limited progress and highlighted a wide variation in the teaching of maths across the country. This variation has been partly put down to the drop in subject-specific support with teachers having a lack of professional associations to turn to seek advice. Concerns were also raised by school leaders about it being difficult to recruit maths specialists which was resulting in non-specialist teachers being recruited.
Ms. Asghar also highlighted Labour’s list of failures over the past 26 years; 20% of students leaving primary school illiterate, maths standards dropping to worryingly low levels, poor PISA results, a confusing curriculum, a lack of support for teachers, a teacher recruitment and retention crisis, a discredited reading method being pushed in schools, soaring absenteeism, poor behaviour and violence in our classrooms, a £25,000 teacher training grant being dished out, but only if you are from an ethnic minority and completely skewed priorities with £12m of funding going to music and just £8.7m going to maths, literacy, science and technology.
Commenting after her Spokesperson’s Questions, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education, Natasha Asghar MS, said:
“By every perceivable metric, Labour has failed children across Wales over the past 26 years.
“The Estyn report lays bare the shocking reality of Labour’s neglect, with pupils being let down by inconsistent teaching, a lack of specialist support, and a failure to address the recruitment crisis in key subjects like maths.
“The list of Labour’s failures is staggering and so I asked the Cabinet Secretary, is there anything this Labour Government has got right when it comes to education here in Wales? Sadly, her response did not provide a clear answer, a plan to fix Labour’s mess or any cohesive strategy to improve the falling standards in Wales.”
