Value of Welsh Bacc questioned at NASUWT Cymru conference
Responding to concerns expressed by teachers in a debate on the standing, status and value of the Welsh Baccalaureate at the NASUWT Cymru Conference held in Ewloe, Flintshire over the weekend, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in Wales and the UK, said:
“Despite concerns over workload, the NASUWT has consistently acknowledged the positive potential of the Welsh Baccalaureate as a means by which learners in the 14-19 sector can gain access to a meaningful, high-quality and engaging qualification pathway.
“However, the views expressed at the Conference by teachers from all over Wales who deliver the Welsh Baccalaureate have now placed a huge question mark over the credibility of the qualification.
“Teachers are increasingly concerned that this qualification was being driven more by an obsessive focus on performance data than on providing young people with appropriate qualifications.
“This has major implications for the Welsh Government’s qualifications review.”
NASUWT Wales Organiser, Rex Phillips, said:
“The debate at the conference was both interesting and enlightening.
“The tone and thrust of the contributions was that the Welsh Baccalaureate had become a ‘cut and paste’ qualification that lacked the rigour to justify its use in terms of GCSE equivalence and that, even more worryingly, it was not valued by many pupils.
“Teachers questioned whether the Welsh Baccalaureate was being used in schools to improve performance data, rather than pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
“In the light of this the NASUWT awaits with interest the outcome of the Welsh Government’s qualifications review.”
ENDS
Lena Davies
Press and Media Officer
Campaigns and Communications Team
NASUWT
0121 457 6250 / 07867 392 746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
-01.png){kind=spacer}