Welsh Assembly Member Petitions for Fifteen-Year Education Improvement Plan

Aled Roberts, appointed as education spokesman for the Welsh Liberal Democrats believes that education in Wales should have a plan for improvement spread over 15 years, as its state will not improve overnight.

In a worldwide survey conducted amongst secondary schools, Wales ranks 38th for reading, 40th for maths and 30th for science. This is far from Education Minister Leighton Andrews’ goal of giving five years for Wales to land a place amongst the top-20 Pisa nations in the next round of tests to be taken in 2015.

Mr Roberts believes the difficulties being faced by Wales’ school system are already “deep-seated” and will require time to be sorted out. These issues will require a long-term solution as teachers are experiencing frustrations due to frequent policy changes and new initiatives. He proposes a more “consensual approach” to providing education, with involvement from various stakeholders.

The issues cited by Mr Roberts include literacy and numeracy, and how the education performance of Wales compares to England.

In an interview with the Western Mail, Mr Roberts said: “What I really think is needed in education is a sort of 15-year programme whereby there is a degree of agreement that’s been built up through a proper understanding of the challenges we face – and a teacher in the profession is not going to be told two or three years down the line ‘this hasn’t worked so we’re going to change something’ again.

“The message I get from teachers all the while is that they get so many initiatives and so many changes of policy that, in reality, half the time people don’t even know if things have succeeded or not by the time they are withdrawn.”