Welsh Government drops top 20 Pisa target

  • Wales

The Welsh Government has dropped its target to be in the top 20 places of international education league tables by next year.

Education Minister Huw Lewis says he instead wants to see Wales reach Pisa average scores in reading, maths and science in three tests time, in 2021.

The influential tests compare 15-year-old pupils from around the world in key subjects.

When the tests were last taken in December 2012, Welsh pupils' performance was:

  • Maths

  • Score: 468

  • Rank: 43rd out of 68

  • Reading

  • Score: 480

  • Rank: 41st out of 68

  • Science

  • Score: 491

  • Rank: 36th out of 68

Wales is behind the rest of the UK, behind the Pisa average, and ranked lower than in the previous tests in 2009, in all three areas.

In 2009, former Education Minister Leighton Andrews publicly targeted a place in the top 20 when the tests are taken in December 2015.

In his new book he describes that target as "a mistake. The target was too ambitious and it was naive. With more countries joining PISA, it was actually a target that was very unlikely to be hit."

Current Education Minister Huw Lewis has always stuck by the target, despite doubts it can be met. Today, though, outlining a vision for improving education over the next five years, he has changed the target.

The Welsh Government's new ambition is to achieve scores of 500 for reading, maths and science in the Pisa tests in 2021. Pisa says 500 is the average score for OECD countries.

In the 2012 results, 21 countries scored above 500 in maths, 22 did so in reading, and 25 did so in science.