Twenty-Six Years of Decline: Why Welsh Education Needs Change Now
Labour’s long-standing control over education has seen Wales consistently lag behind other parts of the UK in key measures such as literacy, numeracy and science. Over the past 26 years, Labour, enabled by Plaid Cymru, has delivered the lowest educational outcomes for young people anywhere in the UK.
Plaid Cymru may attempt to convince the public that they bear no responsibility for this decline, but that claim does not withstand scrutiny. Over this period, Plaid has either been in coalition with Labour or entered cooperation agreements that have seen them pass Labour budgets. They cannot selectively claim credit for policies they support, such as Free School Meals, while refusing responsibility for shocking PISA results, falling standards, rising absenteeism, violence in schools and worsening behaviour. Plaid Cymru is complicit in every major failure Labour has overseen in Welsh education.
Earlier this year, an ITV Wales investigation revealed that a fifth of primary school leavers are functionally illiterate. This is a damning indictment of Welsh Labour’s approach to teaching reading, particularly its refusal to ban the widely discredited ‘cueing’ method while failing to fully adopt the proven phonics-based approach used elsewhere.
Cueing encourages pupils to guess unfamiliar words using context, sentence structure and letter shapes rather than sounding them out. It relies heavily on prediction rather than decoding and has been criticised extensively by reading experts. In England, the cueing method was effectively abandoned following a 2005 review into early reading, with the UK Government mandating systematic synthetic phonics instead.
Since England moved away from cueing and introducing phonics, reading standards have improved. In stark contrast, Labour’s refusal to ban cueing in Wales, combined with mixed messaging about its validity, has contributed to Wales recording the lowest PISA results in the UK and the steepest decline of any nation. This is not a one-off failure: Wales has ranked worst in the UK for six consecutive PISA cycles. Without urgent and decisive action, there is a real risk that Wales will repeat this failure again.
Beyond literacy, Welsh education is struggling with soaring absenteeism and dangerously low levels of teacher recruitment and retention. Schools are under pressure, staff morale is low, and too many pupils are disengaged from learning. As long as the Welsh Government remains either unwilling or incapable of addressing these fundamental issues, learners in Wales will continue to fall behind their peers across the rest of the UK.
With a Senedd election approaching, it is clear that Labour and Plaid Cymru are not the answer. Wales has endured 27 years of their record, and the next generation cannot afford further decline in our education system.
The Welsh Conservatives offer a credible and comprehensive alternative to fix education and prevent a lost generation. Central to our plan is restoring academic rigour, discipline and safety in schools. At present, schools are suffering due to Welsh Government inaction, including the removal of guidance supporting automatic suspensions for pupils who bring knives into schools. This inexplicable decision has coincided with rising incidents of weapons in schools and increasing violence and disorder. The Welsh Conservatives are clear: we will reinstate automatic exclusions for pupils who bring knives into school.
We will also ban smartphones from classrooms, they are a major distraction for both pupils and teachers, undermining learning and behaviour. Pupils using phones disrupt not only their own education but that of others around them. A clear ban will improve classroom discipline and academic focus.
Hand in hand with this is our pledge to introduce age restrictions on social media for under-16s. British children spend nearly three hours a day online, with large numbers exposed to real-life violence, pornography and extremist content. Experts warn that excessive social media use is linked to deteriorating mental health, poor sleep, isolation, and negative impacts on behaviour and learning. Parents should always be the first line of defence, and Conservatives want to support them in protecting children.
We will raise reading standards by banning the cueing method and fully embedding phonics. We will also introduce Essential Life Skills classes, ensuring pupils leave school equipped with skills such as budgeting, helping protect them from future financial mistakes.
To restore standards, Wales needs more good teachers in classrooms, not Labour and Plaid’s £120 million plan for 36 more politicians. That money would be far better spent on teachers, doctors and nurses.
Only a Welsh Conservative Government can fix education and fix Wales by raising standards, restoring discipline, tackling violence and ensuring every child has the best possible start in life.
Natasha Asghar is the Welsh Conservative MS for South Wales East and Shadow Minister for Education.
