Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm what the Government’s targets are for the 2018 PISA assessment? TAQ(5)0143(EDU)

Thank you, Darren, for the opportunity to discuss the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment today, after yesterday’s questions on the 2021 assessment. I’m clear that I expect to see improvement in Wales’s 2018 PISA score, but in particular I want to see progress in the performance above the seventy-fifth percentile.

I’m very grateful for that response. Cabinet Secretary, you know that the PISA results that were published last year showed that Wales has suffered a decade of decline in international league tables, with worse scores for literacy, maths and science in 2015 than there were in 2006. And those poor scores prompted your predecessors to announce all sorts of Welsh Government targets, the most recent of which, of course, were in 2011; we had Leighton Andrews setting a target to be in the top 20 in the international league tables by 2015. That, of course, was highly unlikely and, as a result, was scrapped by his successor, Huw Lewis, who set a new target of achieving scores of 500, at least, in each of the subjects by 2021. Now, at the time of that announcement, you criticised the then Welsh Government’s decision, saying that it was, and I quote,

‘an example of the absolute poverty of ambition’, and you accused the Government, at that time, of ‘settling for mediocrity’.

Last week, you told the Children, Young People and Education Committee—

I want the question to be heard, please.

Diolch, Llywydd. Last week—[Interruption.] Last week, you told—

I don’t say these things and expect to be ignored. I want the question to be heard.

Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, you told the Children, Young People and Education Committee that the 2021 target was, and I quote, ‘not my target’, and you signalled that you were moving away from it. Yesterday we saw the First Minister slapping you down for what you said, restating the commitment to the 2021 target, a particularly unedifying performance from the First Minister, given that today is Stand Up to Bullying Day. Now, that makes the Welsh Government look something of a two-headed beast pulling in different directions, a bit like the pushmi-pullyu of Doctor Dolittle fame. So, can I ask you: you’ve clarified your unambitious target for 2018—? If the 2021 is not your target, can you tell us: what is your target for 2021, in particular; when can we expect to achieve that target; and what is your strategy for actually getting Wales there, because I don’t see one?

Thank you very much, Darren. I regret your unfortunate phraseology, which I don’t think is called for in this situation, especially when referring it to a male and a female Member of this Assembly. It has unfortunate connotations. However, you are absolutely right: Wales’s current performance in the PISA rankings is not good enough. It wasn’t good enough when I sat over there, and it certainly isn’t good enough now that I sit here, and, perhaps more importantly, have the opportunity to do something about it. Targets are, of course, important, but you can hit the target, Darren, and you can miss the point—action is more so.

I am very clear that I expect to see improvement in the next set of PISA results, but as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said themselves, PISA should be used as a diagnostic tool, and it isn’t just about one score. Using PISA data, it is clear to me that what we need to be doing more is to support what the OECD has described as the seventy-fifth percentile. I am actively looking and scoping the introduction of a targeted scheme to better support our more able and talented pupils that will link to the successful Seren network. This will complement the work with the maths and science network, which I announced since the last PISA reports, so that we can focus very much on developing the skills of our teachers to support our more able and talented children. As you will be aware, as you take great interest in this, reading is the focus of the next PISA test. In the last PISA test, Wales had 3 per cent in the top two levels, and I would be extremely disappointed if that number did not increase the next time around.

It’s perfectly clear to me that the Government is in some difficulty on this issue. I will keep my comments very brief. I did agree with you, when you sat on these benches, when you did mention a lack of ambition among your predecessor Labour Welsh Ministers, but having listened to your responses today, I haven’t heard whether you are still committed to the targets that the First Minister made clear yesterday that he was committed to. I will give you an opportunity once again to say whether you are sticking to that target that Carwyn Jones is certainly still respecting, or do you stick to the comments that you made from these benches that the ambition needs to be greater than that?

Thank you, Rhun. As you heard yesterday from the First Minister, 500 remains—[Interruption.] If you let me finish, 500 remains the long-term goal of the Welsh Government for the next but one set of PISA results. Therefore, you know, we need to make progress in the next set of PISA results if we’re to hit that next target, and that’s why I, quite rightly, whilst I’m in this position, am focusing on interventions that will make a difference to the next set of PISA results, which will be an important waymark to the next set.