Education in Wales
This article provides an overview of education in Wales from early childhood to university and adult skills.
Largely state-funded and freely accessible at a primary and secondary level, education is compulsory for children in Wales between ages 5-16 years old.
It differs to some extent in structure and content to other parts of the United Kingdom, in the later case particularly in relation to the teaching of the Welsh language.
Early forms of formal education were church or privately run and available to only a small segment of the population.
[10] From the start of the January, April or September (whichever comes soonest) following a child's third birthday they become eligible for a minimum of ten hours a week in publicly funded nursery education.
Nursery lessons are focused on developing children's abilities in a variety of areas such as creativity, communication and general knowledge however, at this age, learning to read and write is not yet considered a priority.
[11] Depending on their parents economic and employment status children in this age-range may be eligible for up to twenty additional hours of state-subsidised childcare each week.
"[16] The Welsh government is planning to introduce universal state funded childcare for two-year-old children by the mid-2020s.
Currently, only the most disadvantaged toddlers in this age group and those in some more deprived areas are entitled to 12.5 hours of care provided by the state.
[19] Education is compulsory beginning with the term following the child's fifth birthday, but may take place at either home or school.
[28][29] Pupils in secondary school take part in the compulsory GCSE and the non-compulsory A-level or BTEC qualifications at ages 15/16 and 17/18 respectively.
[31] Wales has often performed poorly in PISA results, which compare the academic abilities of adolescents around the world.
[32] The 2018 tests saw Wales' results improving but remaining the weakest of the four education systems of the UK in all subjects.
Many colleges offer leisure learning and training programmes designed to meet the needs of business.
[41] The state does not control syllabi, but it does influence admission procedures and monitors standards through the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
[14] The curriculum being rolled out in Wales from 2022 onwards is intended to give individual schools more control over the instruction they provide and the autonomy to develop their own curricula within a basic set of guidelines.
The South West and Mid Wales Consortia partially broke down in 2020 with Powys, Ceredigion and Neath Port Talbot all leaving.
The former two councils then formed an informal partnership whilst Neath Port Talbot remained outside the Consortia system as of March 2022.
[54][55] More broadly Wales's and the other UK education systems are all influenced by their interactions with reserved matters and coexistence within the United Kingdom.
[62] The study of the Welsh language is available to all age groups through nurseries,[63] schools,[64] colleges,[65] and universities,[66] and in adult education.
[67] This is in order to allow Welsh medium schools and nurseries to immerse young children in the language as much as possible.
