Children reading at school. Welsh Government

Emily Price 

The Welsh Conservatives have brought together a panel of education experts in a bid to devise solutions to combat illiteracy in Wales.

Natasha Asghar, who serves as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education, launched her Alternative Literacy Panel on Monday (August 4).

It comes after an ITV News investigation found cueing, a widely discredited teaching method, was still being used in Welsh schools.

Cueing sees children taught to read by guessing words from pictures or the context of a sentence.

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

Phonics

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.

Following England’s decision to move away from cueing in 2005 reading rates across the border have increased.

Whereas in Wales – 20% of children leave primary school illiterate.

The Welsh Government says it believes phonics is “central” to teaching reading and that ministers expect to see it in all schools in Wales.

Earlier this year, the Cardiff Bay administration set out extra support for schools for literacy and the teaching of early reading, following the commission of a literacy expert panel.

However, the Tories have warned the country is facing “a reading crisis with dropping literacy standards”.

Alternative

Shadow Education Secretary Natasha Asghar, has met with her own alternative panel several times over the last few months.

She says the group has proposed a series of improvements and strategic direction, which will help shape the Welsh Conservative manifesto for next year’s Senedd election.

The panel includes Sir Nick Gibb, a former Minister of State for Schools in the UK Government from 2010 – 2012, 2014 – 2021 and 2022 – 2023.

We asked the Welsh Conservatives who else was on the panel – but we were told the other experts wished to remain anonymous.

Natasha Asghar said: “I am incredibly grateful to all of the experts who have joined my Alternative Literacy Panel and provided robust solutions to the reading crisis currently facing Wales.

“Low literacy can seriously hamper an individual’s future learning and job prospects, hit their confidence, and we know illiteracy is significantly correlated with crime.

“I am determined to improve outcomes for our young people and this Alternative Literacy Panel is a first important step in bringing about meaningful change.”

Synthetic phonics

Sir Nick Gibb said the Welsh Government should be listening to Asghar’s expert panel who have advocated systematic synthetic phonics in the teaching of reading in Welsh schools.

He said: “As the UK Schools Minister for 10 years, we legislated to require systematic synthetic phonics in schools in England, and we introduced the Phonics Screening Check to be sure that children had been taught to decode words and to ensure no child slipped through the net with their reading difficulties unidentified.

“As a consequence of our reforms, England is now fourth in the world in the reading ability of our 9- and 10-year-olds according to the PIRLS international survey.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Phonics is central to teaching reading and we expect to see it in all schools. The Curriculum for Wales guidance is clear that the systematic and consistent teaching of phonics is fundamental to teaching reading, alongside vocabulary building and comprehension.

“Earlier this year, we set out a range of extra support for schools including further support for literacy and the teaching of early reading, following the commission of a Literacy Expert Panel.

“All literacy support is based upon the latest evidence and co-constructed with experts and practitioners. We are already seeing improvements in levels of attainment.”

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