Welsh Government Asks OECD To Review Education Reforms
Education Secretary Kirsty Williams has commissioned the highly-respected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to provide support and challenge to the Welsh Government’s work on education reforms to make sure they are on track, it was announced today (Thurs 27th Oct).
The OECD, who publish the annual internationally recognised PISA rankings, will look at the strategies that the Welsh Government have put in place since they last reported on Wales in 2014. They will feedback on the appropriateness of the strategies and the progress made with them.
In early September the Education Secretary travelled to meet Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills to discuss Wales’ education reforms and agreed on the new review.
Kirsty Williams said:
“I believe in following international evidence. That is why I have asked the OECD to look at our reforms and to report back on whether we are on the right track and that we are making the right levels of progress.
“For well over a decade, the OECD has been at the forefront of providing the very best international evidence available. That’s why I recently took the opportunity to visit their headquarters in September.
“My meetings with Andreas Schleicher and others, reinforced why we absolutely must focus on giving our young people meaningful skills for life, including digital of course.
“It is not good enough to limit our ambitions to simply looking across the border, we must strive to be up there with the best in the world. So when I met the OECD, I asked that they advise me on whether we now have the right strategies in response to their 2014 Review.
“We must provide all pupils with the skills and knowledge, ambition, confidence and qualifications for individual and national success. PISA may divide opinion, but it is the recognised international benchmark for skills.”
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