A National Assembly for Wales committee has backed the findings of a report calling for the prioritisation of literacy and numeracy standards in Welsh schools.
The Children and Young People Committee supported the views on embedding key skills set out by education watchdog Estyn in its annual report.
The Committee has recommended that the Welsh Government’s new statutory Literacy and Numeracy Framework should include guidance for teachers and school leaders to ensure that opportunities to practice literacy and numeracy skills are embedded across the curriculum at all Key Stages and that best practice models are shared.
It also recommended that the Welsh Government should work with local authorities and forthcoming regional consortia, when established, to provide and encourage teachers to take up professional development opportunities to improve their confidence in using and teaching Welsh as a second language.
“Attaining high standards of literacy and numeracy during a child’s education is a major priority, as any ground lost during these early years will be magnified later in life, damaging their prospects for further development and employment, said Christine Chapman AM, Chair of the Children and Young People Committee.
“The Committee was concerned to hear about the high number of children entering Key Stage 3 with reading ages below their chronological ages and that numeracy performance among 14-19 year olds in Wales is lower than in the other UK nations.
“So we agree with the education inspector Estyn that opportunities to practice literacy and numeracy skills should be mainstreamed across all Key Stages in Welsh schools and that best practice models should be shared and standardised across Wales to promote development in these areas.”