Wales Education News

Schools across Wales are to receive an extra thirty two million pounds a year to help its most disadvantaged pupils. The Welsh Government grant aims to reduce the impact of poverty on educational achievement. A hundred percent of the funding will go directly to school budgets.

• Education
• education

Plaid Cymru's education spokesperson Simon Thomas is today calling for a single exam system to set GCSE and A level qualifications in schools and colleges across Wales to standardise the system. It follows concerns raised by qualifications watchdog OFQUAL that papers are becoming less demanding.

I am very concerned about the consequences of the creeping marketisation of the education of our young people. I want to seestandard qualifications introduced across the nation so that examination boardsare not competing against each other and trying to ‘sell’ their courses toschools.

The concern is that the marketisation of the qualificationssystem can lead to schools being tempted into choosing the ‘easiest’ coursesrather than those that test their pupils’ abilities

Mr Thomas added that he was concerned that schools are finding that they need to "market" themselves to parents and therefore are looking for courses that will bring results

A market based approach is not in the best interests of pupils, of schools or of wider society. The Welsh Government needs to take clear and decisive action to reform the education system, to make it fit for purpose rather than fit for the market.

In order to provide qualifications that measure pupils’ abilities, we need to measure educational attainment. In particular we need a system that ensures that qualifications are only awarded to students with appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy. We will be looking for serious and decisive action from the Welsh Government on this.

• Politics
• education
• plaid cymru

A critic of plans to merge three universities in South East Wales is to resign. Dr Peter Noyes who's the vice chancellor of the University of Wales Newport is standing down for personal reasons.

In the past, he has attacked Welsh Government plans to create a 'super-university' by merging Newport with the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff Metropolitan University. Dr Noyes has worked at the University in Newport for sixteen years, the last six of them as vice-chancellor.

• Education
• education
• Universities

Education Minister Leighton Andrews has told AMs that intervention in failing schools by ministers should be up to local authorities not Welsh ministers. He told Shadow Education minister Angela Burns that the intention of his Schools' bill was to encourage local authorities to act.

Mr Andrews acknowledged that 'there may be circumstances' where a ministerial intervention is needed but he said they should be rare.

• Education
• Leighton Andrews AM
• education

NUT Cymru says there's 'much to welcome' in the Schools Bill which it says 'will hopefully lead to significant improvements across a number of areas within the school system.' Policy Officer Owen Hathaway adds

Where we exercise caution is in relation to proposals around interventions in schools by local authorities. What we would like to see is a system of cooperation and collaboration between parents, schools and the local authority to ensure that any school which requires assistance is given the necessary support. There must also be agreement on what assistance is required and the challenges which currently exist.

What would be a cause for concern is if this Bill was used by local authorities as a green light to intervene when they may not understand the challenges faced by a particular school, or may not have the capacity to offer the support needed.

• Politics
• NUT Cymru
• education

The Welsh Government has set out its plans to reform the Welsh education system in a bill published today.

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Bill gives greater guidance to local authorities in how they can intervene to tackle failing schools.

The proposals includes a way for parents to call meetings with school governors, as well as giving local authorities 'flexibility' over the price of school meals.

The Bill also includes an obligation for councils to put in place strategies to 'support and enhance' provision of Welsh-medium education.

All children and young people in Wales should have access to the best education which will benefit them throughout their lives.

Reducing bureaucracy and improving school standards is a crucial element of this.

• Education
• education
• Schools