Welsh teenagers 2 years of education behind English teenagers

[Ablondiebutagoody]

Latest Pisa research has Welsh kids up to 40 points below English kids, which corresponds to two full years of education.

AIBU to say this is due to a dumbing down of the curriculum by Welsh Labour and that Phillipson is eyeing up the same for England?

YANBU: It's down to Government meddling
YABU: Other factors are responsible for Welsh kids poor performance

Afaik Welsh medium schools are in the minority so that’s unlikely to be the major factor, but this (from 2020) suggests it may be part of it:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/welsh-medium-school-pupils-underperform-in-tests-despite-more-advantaged-backgrounds

Such as?

Having seen the pressures English schools are under as regards fitting things in god only knows how Welsh schools manage Welsh too!

At what cost? Our mental health stats are horrific, we have high numbers of children not even in school and SEN provision is dire. Schools are miserable places, staff are leaving by in their droves, the arts are just punted out. Those above us in the list have higher teenage suicide levels . But of course no one cares about that.

No idea; I know very little about the Welsh education system.
My point mainly was in relation to finding ways not to sacrifice the national language. I’m from a country with a first language which could also be in danger of dying out and I’m happy to say that there’s always uproar when there is any governmental chat about potential relaxing its importance in the curriculum. I hated it at the time as it’s a difficult language to learn, but I’m glad I did learn it and it’s a huge part of our national heritage and identity which I suspect Welsh also is for Welsh folk.

No, it’s what years of a totally unfair funding settlement, which does not take into account the particular geographical and demographic challenges of Wales, does to a country. And that’s why Wales voted Plaid Cymru in, for a government that is not in the pocket of the Labour government in Westminster and will actually fight for Welsh interests.

I think people are getting confused - Welsh medium schools teach all subjects in Welsh, but they are in the minority. Most schools teach Welsh the way that French or Spanish is taught in England. However, at secondary the syllabus has changed to reduce English language and literature to one subject, and science to one GCSE. This hugely depletes the content level, and means that if kids want to go on and study at a higher level they are at a big disadvantage against their English counterparts. It's a relatively new change so it's hard to see the affects yet.
When you add in that teachers need to have a grasp of Welsh in order to apply for jobs you are again hugely reducing the number of people who can apply for roles, and ruling out some excellent staff and leaving quite a few not so good ones.
The play based aspect of early years is a positive, but it's not a surprise that Wales is lagging behind based on PISA.

But what would you do? We can't just say well we won't teach anything so children will be happy, that won't work. There is also a strong correlation between a lack of education and poor health, is that what you want? I suspect a lot of children struggle with school because they are bored because so little is expected of them.

Why do you think the play based system in early years is a positive?

Provide a curriculum that caters for all and is engaging. Children are struggling in school
because the curriculum’s unbearably dry
and demanding, there is also little in it for SEND with provision stretched to the bone
and the arts have been shoved out.

It’s not just wales though the same thing has happened in Scotland (the headline was “English school children in top 10 whilst wales and Scotland slump”) indicating it’s not about learning the language but that yes, devolution could well be a factor