Improving children’s education around Wales is of massive importance not just because of young people’s wellbeing and abilities, but because it can also have a massive knock on effect around the country. Senedd members want literacy rates to improve, and it seems there is some consensus on how to achieve that, and they hope it happens soon.
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00:00If you have to go back to 2012, because that's the most recent data, at that time it showed
00:07that 20% of children were illiterate in the transfer from primary school to secondary
00:12schools.
00:13One of the issues of course is about how you teach reading and there has been a discussion
00:20about how the best way to do that is. I think it's important we follow evidence and if we
00:27follow evidence, my understanding is that there should be more concentration on phonics.
00:32My understanding is that that's the guidance that the Education Minister may be giving
00:37out soon, just to make sure that there's firmer guidance.
00:42Illiteracy is an issue that needs to be tackled, and clearly more so in Wales than elsewhere.
00:47But it's not just the young people themselves affected by not being able to read. As Plaid
00:51Cymru leader Rhiannap Yorwerth says, the improving reading ability in children across Wales will
00:56have a dramatic knock-on effect, including improving the economy down the line, giving
01:01a more solid backbone for Wales in the future.
01:04Illiteracy is devastating. People who can't read are more likely to have mental health
01:09problems, to go to prison, to die younger even. A report by ITV last week raised fundamental
01:16questions about the way children are taught to read in Wales. Experts discredited the
01:22government's literacy guidance as, and I quote, not based on any empirical evidence
01:26of how children learn to read. It's just a wish list.
01:30I think in terms of ensuring that we get the fundamentals right in terms of growing the
01:36economy, I do think that education is a central piece when it comes to that. We've got to
01:42focus on the fundamentals. Reading is a part of that fundamental. I can assure you that
01:51the Education Secretary is absolutely focused on this issue and very concerned about the
01:57situation.