Strong results – but no room for complacency, warns minister
national level is limited; this protects standards and secures fairness for students, which is particularly important when qualifications change.
“However, when changes happen, there is typically more variability in individual school and college results,” the regulator said in a statement.
David Evans, secretary of NUT Cymru, said: “Beyond the top grades we have seen similar increases overall and that is great testament to the hard work being put in at our schools and colleges. The results represent a great foundation for our youngsters moving forward.
“Whilst there has been a decline in the number of entries at A- and AS-level of around 6%, it should not cause any concern. There are a number of possible explanations for why that has occurred.
“It is, however, too early to speculate on the reasons why as there has been no definitive analysis as yet.
“Rather, we should focus on the positives and reflect upon the fact that students have secured the grades they need to take the next steps in their development. NUT Cymru congratulates them all.”
Rob Williams, policy director for the head teachers’ union NAHT Cymru, welcomed the results but said funding shortfalls were making it increasingly difficult for schools and colleges to make ends meet.
“The Welsh Government needs to work closely with school leaders to implement a realistic long-term funding strategy that ensures schools and colleges can continue to provide the very best support to their students in the years to come,” he said.
WALES has delivered a strong set of A-level results, but there is no room for complacency, warned Education Secretary Kirsty Williams.
She said performance of individual schools and local education authorities will now be scrutinised to see where improvement is needed and which high achievers could help advise others.
The results from Wales indicate that everyone involved had managed changes to AS and A-level qualifications well, she added.
Wales has now closed the gap with the rest of the UK for the top grades and is ahead of all northern and Midland regions of England at A*-A.
But for A* to C grades it is still behind all regions of England, apart from the West Midlands and East Midlands.
As Wales recorded 8.3% of grades at A* – the best ever – Kirsty Williams said the results show educational reforms are moving in the right direction.
The previous best was result for top grades was in 2015 when only 7.3% in Wales got A*s.
This year 25% of grades were A* or A – 2.7% higher than last year and similar to results during 2008 to 2010, which ranged between 24.1% and 25.0%.
A total of 75.3% of grades were A* to C this year, the highest since 2009, while the percentage of B and C grades awarded are up by 1.5 to 2%.
The Education Cabinet Secretary admitted she had been concerned the new made-in-Wales A and AS qualifications might cause problems.
“The introduction of any new specifications into the system can raise real challenges for students, teachers and examining bodies.
“I was very pleased to hear from Qualifications Wales (the regulating body) that they feel the changes have indeed gone well.
“These are a strong set of results on which we can build future improvement.
“What is particularly encouraging is that the overall pass rate has gone up and there has been an increase at the highest grades. At the same time there are strong performances in subjects like maths and I’m pleased the performance of boys has improved.
“There are many positives but we can’t be complacent. A key part of the national mission of education standards is to develop a self improving school system where we learn from best practice.
“We will look in depth at performance of individual schools and local education authorities.
“Part of our reforms programme is to look at A-levels and I was concerned we did not have a complete strategy so in the last year we have been working with the (school improvement) consortia.
“We will now sit down with the