By far.
Our tough-talking Minister, Leighton Andrews, has often seen ready to dismantle the current system of local education authorities, and many would support him if he ever did.
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| PISA - a real test for the Welsh education system. |
According to this report, Wales is moving up the PISA scoreboard at a remarkable rate. What is less clear, is how this incredible turnaround is being achieved.
One clue as to what could be involved comes from a meeting held by one local authority during 2012. Typically, it took place in a rather plush country hotel.
According to those in the meeting, representatives from schools were told that they were being too hard on themselves.
Unsurprisingly, a few came away thinking they were being told to mark less harshly than in the past. The authority in question denies such a suggestion.
But this would not improve PISA rankings, because the test is undertaken by real pupils doing a real test, and is not based on government-provided statistics. It's one reason why schools keep banging on about how good they are whilst the PISA results say something completely different.
More likely, this could have been an attempt to improve some aspect of the local authority's statistics more within Wales than anything else. Still, it does beg the question of what exactly the statement 'being too hard on yourselves' was actually meant to convey.
We await with baited berath what Leighton Andrews' next step will be in relation to the ever-increasing number of Welsh education authorities needing parachute-in Recovery Boards to get them working. This week, a report recommends a third of them be disbanded. Let's hope it's a report that's heeded.
