A plan to help poorest pupils fails to produce any major performance changes
July 14, 2009
Welsh Inspectorate Report on Literacy
Wales, a devolved government which took up the Revised Curriculum and other questionable ideas from the Northern Ireland Education Department, has evaluated the effects of programmes funded to help the poorest pupils. It will come as no surprise that more money is not the answer to poor numeracy and literacy problems allowed to grow in primary schools. Read the report here. http://www.estyn.gov.uk/ThematicReports.asp
The BBC report highlights some of the shortcomings. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8145113.stm
It will be recalled that Northern Ireland is hardly the exemplar for Numeracy and Literacy modelling throughout the UK.
About £14m a year has been spent since 2006 on the Welsh Assembly Government Raise programme to improve the literacy of the most disadvantaged children but education watchdog body Estyn found that those pupils still “perform significantly less well” at key stages.
According to the report by Estyn, the education and training inspectorate for Wales, the money has been used to pay for additional staff and resources to work with those poorest children. Most schools have used the money to concentrate on reading and writing, but some used the cash to set up homework clubs, others to fund behaviour projects and to work on improve attendance. The performance levels of free school meal pupils in secondary school have deteriorated.
