17/05/2012 Dragon's Eye

The Education Minister unveils his plan to improve Welsh children's

grasp of the three Rs. Will it Good evening. The Education

Minister, Leighton Andrews, has outlined his plan to improve

literacy and numeracy in Wales' schools. It's the latest part of

his 20-point plan to overhaul an education system where

underperformance has been ringing alarm bells for some time now. A

declining trend in international comparisons, combined with concern

from the schools inpectorate, Estyn, that many pupils aren't achieving

what they should in literacy or numeracy, led the Minister to talk

of "systemic failure". More recently, new research has

criticised the Welsh baccalaureate's ability to prepare

pupils for life at university. On Tuesday, Estyn said schools were

failing to thread an emphasis on basic skills through the curriculum.

So where has 13 years of Welsh Government left education here?

For the past four years, the Welsh Government has made sure for every

child born or adopted in Wales a tree is planted so they have

something to look back on in years to come. There's 40,000 trees just

at this one forest on the outskirts of Usk. Often they're planted by

pupils studying for the Welsh Baccalaureate. The idea is that

they have a more rounded education as well as being prepared for

university. It's something that the Welsh Education Minister, Leighton

Andrews is keen on. Last year's A- level Results Showed that while

there were improvements in Wales, we'd fallen further behind England.

That wasn't the full picture according to the minister speaking

last August. The reality is that we've got an additional nearly

7,000 young people who've got the equivalent of an A grade at A-level,

because they've got the advanced diploma in the Welsh Baccalaureate,

that is not included in the A-level figures. Not only have we got

increased performance at A-level, Atack A star to C grades, we have

the 7,000 young people of the equiff lent of A grade at A-level

in terms of university entry point. This week concerns have been raised

about the Baccalaureate itself and the way it prepares young people

for higher education. Research into one university suggested

undergraduates completing the course fared less well than those

who had not. Because it's an ungraded qualification, it mean

that's for every student who gets a pass in the qualification, they

actually have a range of abilities. What we're seeing in the analysis

is that the difference in abilities amongst the students are not

reflected in that pass or fail grade. It mean that's students who

might have passed but are having much lower ability than another

student brings down their results and the performance of them at

university as an aggregate group. Teachers broadly support the bacc

but see room for improvement. are similar that thetic to the idea

that is -- sympathetic to the idea that is to grade the Baccalaureate

so that universities can differentiate between the level of

skills. That would be useful. We think that the Welsh Baccalaureate

is a significant and important development in our Welsh

educational journey. We are very largely very supportive of it.

Early this week, Estyn said many schools were failing to plan well

enough on how to develop basic skills for 11 to 14-year-olds and

back in January, they said that 40% of children starting secondary

school couldn't read as well as they should. If you look at our

GCSE results: It shows although there have been improvements,

England has not only overtaken us but seem to be accelerating further

ahead. But are we necessarily comparing like with like? If you

compare Welsh performance with English performance, just on GCSEs,

there's almost no difference, pretty much the same. The

difference comes because in England, far more young people are achieving

through vocational qualifications. Now again, that's something that is

not widely recognised. It gives a bit of a different kind of picture

of what is happening in Wales. Today, the Welsh Government has

launched its latest strategy to try to get to grips with our poor

literacy standards. Earlier in the week, Opposition AMs claimed they'd

heard it all before. I know you say First Minister that literacy is a

priority, but can I read you what the previous education ministers

have said "Improving standards in basic skills is key. Rosemary

butler, Labour 1999. We have decided to give particular priority

to basic skills, Jayne Davidson, Labour Education Minister, 2005.

One of our key priorities is improving levels of literacy,

Labour Education Minister 2009. My current priority is to raise

literacy standards, Leighton Andrews Labour Education Minister,

2011. In fact, the only Education Minister that I couldn't find a

quote from was you Carwyn. If improving literacy has been a

priority for every Labour Education Minister since 1999, what do you

think has been going wrong? We have been consistent in our desire to

raise literacy and numeracy. That's been evidenced by the question

asked bit leader of the Liberal Democrats. Leighton Andrews as the

education minister is the latest in the long line of ministers who will

continue to improve literacy and numeracy. I see nothing wrong with

that. As with these saplings, it takes time for any policy to root

itself and make a difference. The same goes with education policies.

But it's 13 years since we got the Assembly. How likely is it that the

Welsh Government's education policies will turn into a mighty

Welsh oak? I think it is time now that we begin to ask quite far

going questions about the effects that many of the policies that have

been introduced are having. Of course, that poses the very

interesting issue, well, how do you measure the effects? What kind of

effects are you really looking for? Many in the education sector

believe the Welsh Government's policies are going in the right

direction. Their targets are ambitious. To be in the top 20 of

the international league tables in three years. Things may be looking

up, then, but it might take a while longer for them to blows om.

-- blossom. I'm joined now by Education Minister, Leighton

Andrews. Welcome to Dragon's Eye. Good evening. The national literacy

programme, then, how do you expect that time prove literacy and

numeracy? This is a sustained focus. There are a number of elements to

it. We start with introducing standardised reading tests across

Wales. There are already many reading tests going on at the

present time, but what we've not had is a standardise add proch.

We've drawn on extensive research to support development of those

plans. We've commissioned work externally to help us with that.

We're also going tone sure that newly qualified teachers have

appropriate standards of literacy and numeracy and that there will be

a national framework to assist teachers in all subjects to ensure

that they are providing young people with the skills they need in

literacy and numeracy. On the tests, there'll be statutory tests from

next year, across Wales and consistent, same tests taken by

each age year group? From years two to nine, those tests will be taken.

We've done the work, of course, as I've said to develop standardised

tests. What happens to the results? Obviously, they're going to be

tabliated. Will parents have access to them? They'll principally be

diagnostic tests for teachers to understand the progress that the

young people are themselves making. I think they will give head

teachers, they will give governors a view as to how overall the

teaching of literacy and numeracy are taking place within that

particular school. It is important they have access to that so they

understand. We already know, for example, that secondary schools

tend to retest the young people coming to them from primary schools.

Head teachers tell me that they make judgments about which primary

feeder schools are making accurate assessments of the performance of

the young people who reach them at secondary. So no automatic parental

access to the results of the tests? We're work through on the detail of

what we will be doing with the tests when they come in. As I said,

they are voluntary this year. I still think there are issues to

look at. I think it's important. Most parents would expect young

people leaving primary school to leave with the appropriate reading

age, clearly 40% of them are not at the present time. Indeed, is the

re-introduction of consistent tests across the country an admission it

was a mistake to drop SATs and not replace it with consistent

assessments of progress? because SATs, teachers will tell

you when we had SATs they focused really on teaching to those SATs.

What we're enabling here is practice which allows teachers to

engage with young people in introducing them to literacy and

numeracy in a variety of different ways. We know for example, I was at

a school this morning, again, that has pioneered different approaches

for boys and girls. We know boys learn in a different way than girls.

It's important that teachers have the flexibility. The unions are

worried about the work load. understand that the unions have

concerns about that. I've signed on, off on additional support for the

backing of the tests, which we will be taking forward in due course.

I'm pleased, though, that the unions have, as far as I can see

today, given a pretty favourable response to what we're planning to

do here. In terms of the additional support, how will that manifest

itself? There will be, in the context of the national framework,

we're looking at training for teachers, we may look at additional

support in the organisation of the tests themselves. There'll be the

opportunities for teach efrz to -- teachers to develop their own

practice in the masters on practice. There are a number of ways in which

we're giving that support. We've heard from all your predecessors

that they've all assured parents over the years that numeracy and

literacy were at the heart of their educational priorities. Why do you

think that they've so consistently failed to deliver up to this point?

I think, I don't think they've consistently failed to deliver.

Let's be clear about the education system in Wales. More young people

are gaining qualifications, fewer are leaving school without

qualifications. We've been seeing general rise in standards. We've

bieneered things like the Welsh Baccalaureate and doubled the

number of vocational qualifications. What I've decided to do over the

last year to 18 months is to review what we have been doing on literacy.

That's why I got Estyn to look at the skills framework. As you know,

according to Estyn, one in five pupils arrive at secondary school

functionally ill literal. Surely it was up to your predecessors to take

action to arrest this decline before you adopted it, why did they

fail? One of the things we are clear about now is that when we

removed SATs in 2004, we needed to have put in place some other

accountability mechanisms. We needed a closer eye, perhaps, on

the outcomes at the end of primary schools. I think what we've seen,

as there's been closer working between secondary schools and

cluster primary schools, good practice developing in which people

are learning about the best ways to measure children's performance. We

clearly have got some work to do. I think the 40% you mention is the

clear expression of the problem. 20% functionally illiterate is not

acceptable. That's why I'm introducing these five-year

programme. Thanks you for joining us. There are concerns over whether

a senior Labour councillor in Cardiff secured a favourable lease

from the local authority for a shop, which he then immediately sublet

for a profit. Councillor Michael Michael was a Cabinet member when

the deal was done in 2001 for the commercial unit. He's only just

been re-elected to the local authority this month and now

appears set for a senior role chairing the planning committee.

Here's Brian Meechan. In an unforgettable night for Labour, the

party swept back to power across the country, including Cardiff.

This is Councillor Michael Michael, working in his hairdressers. He

might have been open for business today, but he wasn't open to

speaking to Dragon's Eye. He lost his seat in this ward in 2008, but

before that, he held council Cabinet positions in Cardiff,

including being Deputy Leader. This is the shop that Councillor Michael

secured the long-term lease for from the Council whilst a member of

the ruling Cabinet. It's only been closed for a few weeks. It's right

next door to Councillor's Michael's hairdressers. A former Deputy

Leader of Cardiff Council, who now leads the Liberal Democrats group

was concerned. There has to be full openness and transparency. Yes, it

was thoroughly investigated at the time. I understand nothing was done

illegally. But for some people, it does leave a sour taste. There's a

bit of a cloud over it. He paid the Council �10,000 far the lease on

the property for 99 years in addition to paying an annual rent

of �1. The deal went ahead despite concerns being raised at the time.

It emerged that the Councillor Michael intended to immediately

sublet the property. The senior valuer said, "I do not think this

is at all acceptable." The valuer believed if the Councillor could

make money from subleting the shop then the Council was not getting

the correct amount for it by selling the lease. The deal went

ahead and Mr Michael sublet the shop for an immediate profit, a

one-off fee of �10,000, plus an annual charge of �3600. Local

businesses are unhappy that they've not been offered similar

arrangements. This is a peppercorn rent like that premises is. But

mine is �25 a year, a very low figure, but I had to buy that at a

market value. I paid in 1999 for this �180,000. It doesn't seem to

match up. Mike owns two shops neighbouring Mr Mikeles. Cardiff

Council has only issued two long- term leases on retail properties

since it was created in 1996, both of them to Councillor Michael

Michael. That's what he's negotiated. We were never given the

option to naishiate this plan. We didn't know we could negotiate this

plan. We were told by the valuation office that our rates would be

whatever the rates would be for the shop, as in mine is � 2,600 a year.

In four years' time, when I get possibly another rate review, it

will possibly go up again. So it just smacks of privilege, committee

council privilege. Michael Michael was returned to the Council at this

month's elections. Dragon's Eye has seen evidence that the new ruling

Labour group intends to put him forward as the chair of the

planning committee. I am sure prized, yes. Whilst he hasn't done

anything wrong, the fact there's a bit of a cloud still quite raw with

some residents of this city, it is very surprising. If it were me, I

don't think I would have wanted to have gone for that, even though I

knew I hadn't done anything wrong, I think I would have tended to stay

away from that controversy. internal investigations found there

had been no wrongdoing and that all the correct legal procedures had

been followed. Both concluded that the sale had been sole to -- open

to market tender and the deal was standard practice. The Council

referred the matter to the Wales Audit Office. They decided against

investigating the matter saying that too much time had passed and

that there was limited information available from the Council. It said

that if anything new evidence became available it could look into

Another former deputy leader says the matter should not rest there.

would write to the new council leader and ask her to investigate

with the chief executive of the Wales Audit Office. It cannot be

acceptable that some businesses pay thousands for Lisa's in this area,

yards from his property, and yet this property is rented for �1 a

year from the council. The newly- elected council meets for the first

time this evening. This is one Raul there seems sure to rumble on.

I spoke to the chair of the Assembly's Public Accounts

Committee, Darren Millar. What do you make of this? It clearly

appears there have been unusual arrangements between the council

and Councillor Michael. I think we need clarity in order to move on

from this, which clearly appears to be cropping up as an issue which

people are calling for investigations on on a regular

basis. What do you make of the response from the Wales Audit

Office? Has it been adequate? Wales Audit Office have done

everything they could do given the evidence available to them at the

time that it was presented. Obviously, if further information

comes forward it would be right for the Wales Audit Office to review

that information in its entirety in order to have some clarity on this

issue, to see exactly what has happened. In terms of your role as

chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and the wider issue of

the monitoring of the way not only that public money is spent, but

also of the way that potential money that could be going into

taxpayer coffers may or may not be being gathered, do you think there

is sufficient rigour about that in Wales at the moment? We need to

ensure there is value for taxpayers in any arrangement when there is

any financial transaction between a council or any public body and a

member of the public. And we need to uphold the highest standards of

integrity, particularly when individual members of a local

authority are in quite a privileged position and they are entering into

a financial, or illegal transaction with a local authority of which

they are a member. I think we could do with clear guidelines being

published, perhaps by the Wales government, or maybe even by the

Wales Audit Office, to ensure that people can follow those guidelines

when they are entering into these transactions. At the moment, the

standard is whether the law has been observed, whether there has

been full legality. In this case, that is the case, no one has done

anything unlawful. Some might say that is quite a low threshold to

have as your standard. The issue with this particular case is that

it seems the approach with Councillor Martin has been

inconsistent with the approach in terms of that financial

transactions, the legal transactions which have been taken

and made with other shopkeepers and other individuals who are leasing

properties. And I think that needs to be looked at. We need to make

sure there is clarity so that people are treated, regardless of

whether they hold office or not, in the same way. Do you intend to take

any action in that regard yourself, to stimulate discussion about

whether formal guidelines need to be adopted? I will certainly talk

to the Wales Audit Office and the auditor general about this case and

the issues it throws up. Thank you. You are welcome.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has appointed a new shadow Welsh

secretary of the Peter Hain stepped down. His successor, Owen Smith, is

here now. Welcome, congratulations on your new role. How do you see it

developing? I see it as a very much a crucial role speaking for Wales

in Westminster. I think we perhaps lacked a strident, strong voice

from Wales in Westminster over the last couple of years. I don't feel

the Tory government really understands Wales in the way in

which the Labour Party does, given our heritage and history here. I

want to provide a powerful voice for Wales in Westminster, and we

needed, because we still have macro-economic levers in particular,

but all sorts of other areas of non-devolved policy that reside in

Westminster, and we need to make sure the Government understands

what Wales needs and what Carwyn Jones and his ministers need in

order to deliver improvements in Wales. As you know, there has been

a debate for some time about whether the devolution process

renders the role of Welsh Secretary and shadow Welsh secretary

increasingly irrelevant. I think that's a legitimate question and

debate, but I don't think we are at that point yet, or anywhere near it,

when you still have crucial areas, areas right at the heart of the

political debate - the economy, what we are doing in respect of

pensions, what we are doing in respect of welfare and benefits.

Those are not peripheral issues. They are arguably the central

issues of modern political debate, and that is why you still need a

voice around the Cabinet table or the Shadow Cabinet table, speaking

about Wales' needs in those areas. A you could make the same point

about Manchester or Wigan in those terms, because there are cabinet

positions and Shadow Cabinet positions that directly address all

of the examples you have given. Surely it is the role of the people

in those posts to deal with the issues you have described.

could do, but we are a country and that is different. They are

particularities to Wales and there are needs for Wales, not least the

fact that we have an Assembly here, which also changes the dynamics of

how policy is delivered. In Wigan and Manchester there is a far more

direct, central role right across Government. There is the Assembly,

earth which into seats even in areas where there is retained power

still. It is a unique status for Wales and Scotland and right now I

do not see any need to change it. In terms of the Assembly and

particularly the relationship of you as shadow secretary of state

with the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, how important is that role?

Enormously. The relationship is hugely important. We have had

strong relationships in the past and I hope to improve on that.

Carwyn Jones and DI are similar in age and political perspective, in

background, I can see us building a strong relationship. -- he and I.

Is it more than being the First Minister's ambassador in London?

think it is much more than that. Crucially, there are issues where

there is still policy held in Westminster. Wales has a

perspective on what Britain ought to do and think in respect of

foreign policy. Wales still has a perspective that is unique, I

suggest, in terms of industrial strategy. We are part of the world,

similar to the north-east but not exactly the same, where we have a

need for an active invention, interventionist industrial strategy

from Westminster. And we need somebody from Wales arguing that in

Westminster, especially when you have a Government that does not

believe that, that does not believe there is anything they can do and

believes they need to leave it to the market. They would not accept

they do not need to do anything. Today we heard David Cameron

talking about the importance of growth. He talks about it. It would

be good if he had a budget for jobs and growth but he has not had one.

How will we know if you have been a good Welsh Secretary? What are the

criteria we should use? principally, if I have got the Tory

Government to listen to us to an extent and to understand they need

to be doing more. Secondly, perhaps even more importantly, if we have

succeeded in persuading the public that they are not listening and

need to be turfed out in order to put in place in Westminster the

Government that is going to listen to Wales and deliver the policies,

in particular with respect of the economy, that can deliver jobs.

Because all politicians right now ought to be measured on the extent

to which they are improving living standards, improving jobs,

improving job security and opportunities for people right

across the country. On a personal level, you have had a meteoric rise,

and over-used phrase but perhaps appropriate for you. You were only

elected in 2010 and you are already in the Shadow Cabinet, widely

described as a rising star. What are your personal ambitions? His is

a stepping-stone for you? I went into politics having been on the

other side of the lens. I was a journalist, an adviser, worked in

business. The reason I am in politics and not doing those things

is that I want to change the world and improved people's lot, and I

want to do that starting in Wales. This is a programme that you used

to be in charge of. Thank you. Let's talk to Betsan Powys. You

would not believe how many times the director had me rehearsing this

walk. You would think it would be easy but it is more than I am Capel

wrath! Let's look ahead to something happening next week. We

expect an announcement on infrastructure investment. It is

worth thinking ahead about this one because partly it plays into the

argument you have just been discussing, Nicky one of the moment,

growth this is austerity. You had David Cameron arguing that

austerity leads to growth if you did in the right way. You had Owen

Smith and his party and governments across Europe arguing that that is

wrong. Next week, the Welsh government brings out its Welsh

infrastructure plan. They will argue this is part of the proof

that we need that this is a government for growth. They will

invite us to contrast what they are doing, announcing where they will

spend the money that they have on big projects in Wales over the

Spending Review period, and some hints as to what is to come after

that. If you are Jane Hutt, you argue this is proof of growth

strategy. The opposition parties will say, you have �3.5 billion as

a block grant from the UK Government, as you always do, and

you are just telling us where you will spend it. How is that proof of

a growth strategy? How does that tell us this is more than smoke and

mirrors and you just want us to think of you in a different way?

And how it is presented, whether there is any more money to be

leveraged into this, will decide who wins this battle on points.

are seeing the UK Government trying to reposition itself, taking the

focus of the language of austerity and on to growth. They are

obviously send -- sensitive about this. A austerity moves to

efficiency. How the Welsh Government speaks to that argument

and where it fits in well be key to them and interesting for us. Thank