8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: School Education

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:15 pm on 11 December 2019.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 5:15, 11 December 2019

No, no. Well, perhaps the Labour side of her Government have taken advantage and wanted to put their best foot forward in front of the election. But I felt that gave a distorted image to the results across the country. And I think some of what the Conservatives say today is a fair corrective to that.

I do know that the 'positive but not perfect' phrase has been picked up, to some degree, by The Guardian today, which says

'Not perfect but progressive' in arguing for a vote for Labour, notwithstanding the stink of antisemitism. So, I'm not sure if that drew on Welsh Government's own spin doctors from the previous week.

But, overall, I think we need to accept that these PISA results betoken a significant improvement compared to the last set of results, which were very poor. And rather than recognising that, we see the references in the Conservative motion to 2006, in order to give a comparison that favours their attack on Welsh Government, and then we see Welsh Government cherry-picking the best elements in their motion without recognising the areas that really should be spelled out as needing improvement. The speeches have been a bit better than the motions, but we're doing our best to try and bring a little consensus and dispassionate analysis to these results. And, in particular, PISA do a fantastic job in presenting this premier yardstick, and I think it's very good that we do have these comparisons of the different nations in the UK with nations around the world. Thank you.