2025

Claim: In Wales, 20% of children leave primary school illiterate

This figure is not accurate for making conclusions about education in 2025. The figure combines findings from three Estyn reports which were published in 2011 and 2012 from a small sample of schools inspected in those years.

The claim is therefore out of context and out of date.

‘Illiterate’ is not a term recognised or collected as a data item by the Welsh Government, nor it is used by Estyn in their school inspection reports.

Estyn reports

The Estyn annual report 2011/2012 (section 3) did not refer to children being illiterate. It says: ‘In around four-fifths of schools, key stage 2 pupils use their reading skills appropriately in other areas of the curriculum. However, in one-fifth of schools, too many pupils read at a level below their chronological age and a minority do not make enough progress in learning to read with understanding.’  

Estyn’s annual report 2010/2011 states ‘In a survey that we undertook this year, we found that 20% of pupils enter secondary school with a reading age below nine years and six months, which is generally considered the level of functional literacy, and a further 20% have a reading age that is between six and 18 months below their age’.

Estyn’s 2012 thematic review on literacy (KS3) says: “Around 40% of learners enter secondary schools in Year 7 with reading ages significantly (at least six months) below their chronological age. Around 20% of these learners are not functionally literate, with reading ages of below nine and a half years.”

As a small sample across Wales at that time, this is not the same as 20% of all learners.

Claim: Welsh Government spends more than £500m on students studying in England and this money could be used for other purposes.

This claim is incorrect and misleading without additional context.

The Welsh government paid £1.17 billion in loans, which are repaid, and grants which are not repaid, for Welsh students (studying both inside and outside Wales) in the 2023/24 academic year.  

Of this, £911m was loaned to students to support their tuition fees and maintenance. The remaining £264m was spent on grants, including maintenance grants to help with living costs, Disabled Students’ Allowance grants and other targeted grants.

The £500m figure for students studying outside of Wales is based on a particular extract from Student Loan Company data and includes expenditure of loans and grants.

Funding for student loans is provided by HM Treasury and cannot be reallocated or spent by Welsh Government for any other purpose.

The highest level of grant support in higher education is given to those students most in need. This means the lowest income households receive the highest levels of grant (and therefore lowest levels of debt). Cutting student grants for students leaving Wales to study would mean cutting overall student maintenance support, potentially limiting these opportunities to attend university outside of Wales only to those who could afford it, and increasing debts for students from lower-income households.

More information can be found here: Student support for higher education (headline data): 2024 (provisional) [HTML] | GOV.WALES 

Claim: The Seren programme encourages young people to leave Wales and go to study at in universities in England.

The claim is untrue.

Seren does not fund or encourage learners to leave Wales.

Seren supports the most academically able learners, regardless of economic background to aspire, experience and apply to the best higher education course which is right for them, including universities in Wales.

Seren works very closely with Cardiff, Swansea, USW, Aberystwyth and Bangor to support learners by hosting masterclasses, seminars and residentials. 35.2% of Seren learners who started university in 2023 chose to study in Wales. Of those learners who attended the Seren Medics Summer School with Cardiff University in 2023, 82% of them applied to Cardiff University.

Claim:  The Children Missing Education Database will allow pupil information to be shared with the UK government as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

This claim is untrue.

The Children Missing Education (CME) Database is not about elective home education and is not a register. It is also completely separate from the proposed ‘children not in school’ provisions in the UK government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

It will require local health boards to share very limited, non-clinical information about children of compulsory school age, with the child’s home local authority only.

It will only include information about children who are known to their health board but their local authority does not have a record of how or where they are receiving their education. Once the local authority is assured that a child on the CME database is receiving a suitable education, the child’s name will be removed from the database. Information about the database pilot is available here: Children missing education database | GOV.WALES

Claim: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill stops parents from home-educating and parents can’t raise concerns

This claim is untrue.

The ‘Children Not in School’ parts of the bill don’t stop parents from home educating, but they do add more oversight. The UK government introduced this bill in December 2024 for England to improve child protection, track children not in school, and enhance children’s social care.

We want some parts of the bill to apply to Wales too, giving equal protection to children in Wales and helping local authorities and partners meet their safeguarding duties.

Before these rules can apply to Wales:

• A consultation will be held so people can share their views on the proposals.
• They will need to be approved by the Senedd

The parts of the bill that will apply to Wales include:

• Children in secure accommodation
• Extending protection against ill-treatment by care workers to 16/17-year-olds
• Children not in school

Full details are available at: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament