WELSH GOVERNMENT SCRAPS PISA TARGET AFTER RESULTS WOE
THE Welsh Government has ditched its improvement target in the international Pisa test rankings.
Education Secretary Kirsty Williams has admitted that rather than pitch itself against better-performing nations with a specific target, the aim now is for Wales to simply improve its poor scores.
The downgraded ambition follows Wales trailing once again in Pisa results published late last year for tests taken by 15-year-olds in English, maths and science in 2015.
It is the second time ambitious targets to up Pisa scores have been ditched.
The tests, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are viewed as the benchmark of how world education systems compare.
Responding to a question from Plaid Cymru Shadow Education Minister Llyr Gruffydd during a meeting of the Assembly’s Education Committee, the minister revealed the aim now is for Wales to simply improve its scores.
In 2014, the Welsh Government dropped the target for Wales to be in the top 20 Pisa nations, replacing it with a less ambitious target achieving a score of 500 in each domain of Pisa by 2021.
At that time, Kirsty Williams criticised the government for an “absolute poverty of ambition”.
Asked by Mr Gruffydd and Labour AM Julie Morgan where the Welsh Government now stood on Pisa, Ms Williams said: “I have been clear that my expectation is to make progress, for the Welsh education system to make progress in Pisa scores. But as I have said, it is more complex than that.
“We need to make progress in specific areas.
“Wales has made progress for our lower-performing children. We have raised them up and they are doing better than the OECD average, and so it’s a much more complex picture than just saying we are going to have this individual target.”
Pressed on whether that meant the target score of 500 in each domain of Pisa by 2021 had gone, the minister said: “It’s not my target.”
After the meeting, Mr Gruffudd accused Ms Williams of “lowering expectations”.
He said: “After originally failing to reach its target of Wales being in the top 20 of PISA nations in 2013, the Welsh Government brought forward a new, less ambitious target of achieving a score of 500 in each domain of Pisa by 2021.
“Despite berating the minister at the time for lowering the target, the Cabinet Secretary has now herself chosen to