Education Secretary accused of making incorrect claims about reading standards in Wales

Emily Price

The Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynne Neagle has been accused of making incorrect claims about the way reading is taught to school children in Wales.

Last week ITV led an investigation that revealed that some of the teaching methods used in Welsh primary schools have been proven not to work and can even damage a child’s ability.

The broadcaster’s analysis of hundreds of primary schools in Wales found that not only are these methods commonplace – but their use is praised by school inspectors.

‘Cueing’ methods were found to be used in English medium schools all over Wales despite the practice being discredited decades ago.

The method involves teachers prompting students in the initial stages of reading to use pictures and context to tackle unfamiliar words.

Ineffective

But the practice has been described by experts as ineffective and in some cases actively damaging because it establishes poor reading habits that can be difficult to break.

Cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked the method because it leads to children guessing words rather than sounding them out.

In England, ‘cueing’ was abolished by the UK Government following a parliamentary inquiry in 2005 and systematic synthetic phonics is now taught instead.

The structured approach helps children to learn the relationships between the sounds (phonemes) of spoken language and the letter symbols (graphemes) of the written language.

Expectation

In the Senedd on Wednesday (October 2), Shadow Education Minister Tom Giffard quizzed the Education Secretary on why ‘cueing’ was being encouraged by the Welsh Government.

During the exchange, Ms Neagle said she had a “clear expectation that all schools will use synthetic phonics to teach reading”.

She went on to say that, “we are absolutely clear, synthetic phonics is what we expect as the building blocks of reading in Wales.”

But Mr Giffard says the Cabinet Secretary’s claims are incorrect and an ITV follow up article to their investigation described Ms Neagle’s comments as “simply not true”.

The Tory shadow minister has called on the Education Secretary to apologise and correct her remarks on the floor of the Senedd Chamber.

Exchange

In a letter sent to Ms Neagle on Thursday (October 3), he wrote: “During our exchange, I asked why Welsh schools continued to use the internationally discredited practice of ‘cueing’ as a method of teaching young people to read, even though it had been described by experts as ineffective in some cases, and actively damaging in others.

“In response, you said that you had ‘a clear expectation that all schools will use synthetic phonics to teach reading’ and went on to say that ‘we are absolutely clear, synthetic phonics is what we expect as the building blocks of reading in Wales.’

“These claims, however, are contradicted by the evidence. Indeed, the Welsh Government’s ‘Routes for Learning Guidance’ specifically advocates cueing where it states ‘The term ‘cues’ is usually used to mean a way of indicating to the learner what is about to happen. Ideally, cues are an established part of a routine and are natural, that is, they occur within it.’

“It therefore appears that the claims you made to the Senedd yesterday are incorrect.

“Indeed, ITV followed our exchange, and in a write up on their website came to a similar conclusion about the claims you made about the Welsh Government clearly advocating for phonics.

“They said: ‘The problem is, this is simply not true. The Welsh Government has never said all schools should use synthetic phonics to teach children to read. It is not to be found in the curriculum or any literature by the schools inspectorate (Estyn) either.’

“I even pointed out this inaccuracy to you during our exchange, where I cited a press release from your department, which was issued just last week, which said the Welsh Government ‘do not advocate any one specific method to teach reading’.

“Regrettably, you still did not withdraw this claim. Whilst all of us make mistakes from time to time, it is more important than ever that politicians, particularly Government Ministers make accurate claims when speaking in our national legislature.

“I hope your remarks are either clarified, or corrected on the floor of the Senedd Chamber as soon as practically possible. I am copying in the Llywydd to this letter for her information.”

The most recent Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA) results which sees 15-year-olds tested on maths, reading and science saw Wales fall behind the rest of the UK and the international average.

The Welsh Government says the Literacy and Numeracy Framework is currently non-statutory and the Cabinet Secretary for Education has committed to reviewing it and placing it on a statutory footing with synthetic phonics to be made more explicit.

A spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Secretary’s comments in the Senedd are consistent with the description of phonics in our guidance on the Curriculum.

“We are always interested in finding ways in which we can further improve our teaching methods in the best interests of children.

“We accept there are places in our guidance where the importance of phonics needs to be more explicit and where wording needs to be clarified around the use of picture cues.”