Wales PISA results

[Rjk]

The uk in general can and should be doing better. As the nation as a whole we spend quite a lot on education and these measures don't reflect that.

Some of the differences with Wales and England can be explained by socioeconomic groups as wales is poorer than England and poorer people tend to do less well. If you compared wales to say the north east of England then the performance would probably be comparable.

Aspirations also have a big impact. Too many people in wales have no exposure to high flying people to think that is something that they can also do with their lives.

I will say however that some of these measures don't tell the whole story.
I regularly interview and hire engineers from here and all across the world.
Our education system does seem to produce students with excellent problem solving skills and who can come up with creative solutions.
I've had engineers before from abroad who were really good on the theory and scarily good at mental arithmetic but next to no use at all In a real life situation.
Give me a British student with a calculator and Google any day.
We could start teaching just the kind of things that these tests are looking for but I hope we don't, as I think we would lose something not as tangible but that I think must give British businesses an edge

[Wales-Bales]

Some of the differences with Wales and England can be explained by socioeconomic groups as wales is poorer than England and poorer people tend to do less well. If you compared wales to say the north east of England then the performance would probably be comparable.

Yet there are 72 mostly poorer nations above us

I would put it down to the ideology of trying to produce a more conformist and globalist minded population. They need to get back to teaching the basics instead of trying to mind control the kids.

The current syllabus needs to be torn up and they must get rid of the one size fits all approach. We need to teach useful skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, finance, commercial law, how government works, etc.

Most people leave school clueless and are wired to soak up state propaganda via the media and TV. We also need to get rid of the common purpose gatekeepers and anybody else with funny handshakes.

Unfortunately, I can't see any of this happening with Welsh Labour in charge, so education in Wales will probably remain a lost cause.