The latest international test scores confirm what parents across Sir Gaerfyrddin have known for years. Welsh education is in deep crisis, with our 15-year-old pupils falling further behind in basic mathematics, reading, and science. For 27 years, ministers in Cardiff Bay have subjected our classrooms to unproven policy experiments while abolishing national exams and league tables. Blaming child poverty for these disastrous results is an insult to local families and hard-working teachers.
Instead of apologising, ministers in Cardiff spin these numbers, claiming our schools excel at “social equity”. It does not take a genius to work out that you cannot build a home, start a business, or secure a skilled trade on government excuses. While pupils in England move ahead, our young people in West Wales are entering the workforce years behind. That isn’t equity, it is a betrayal of our rural working-class families.
This decay isn’t isolated to our classrooms. It runs through every public service managed by the Labour-Plaid Cymru consensus. While our local health services struggle, direct government intervention in failed administrative bodies is exploding. We spend more money per head than England, yet our waiting lists remain the longest, our farmers are suffocated by red tape, and our small businesses are battered by top-down taxes.
Plaid Cymru claims to represent a fresh start, but they voted for every single one of Labour’s policies that brought us to this point. They built this system.
Reform UK Wales was elected to break this cosy status quo. We don’t need more “autumn recovery plans,” consultancy panels, or bureaucratic jargon. We need an immediate return to basic academic standards in our schools, direct funding for our front-line rural GPs, and an end to wasteful central government spending.
Carmarthenshire’s taxpayers work hard for their money. Every pound wasted on central administrative machinery in Cardiff is a pound stolen from a frontline classroom in Sir Gaerfyrddin. We must strip away central overreach and put resources directly into the hands of headteachers. It’s time they had a government that delivers public services worthy of their effort.
Reform UK will restore real executive accountability, reintroduce national diagnostic checks, and ensure our education system prepares young people for skilled jobs. Visit www.garethbeerms.com to join our campaign for high standards in West Wales.
Background to my latest blog post: On 8 September 2026, international PISA education rankings revealed that Welsh 15-year-olds achieved the lowest scores in the UK across maths, reading, and science. Despite receiving higher per-capita funding than England, the Welsh education and healthcare systems are plagued by chronic underperformance, persistent absenteeism (50% above pre-pandemic levels), and escalating government interventions in failed public bodies. Education Minister Anna Brychan defended the record by pointing to “high equity” for disadvantaged learners and promised an Autumn Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Plan. However, independent bodies like the IFS warn that the government’s pledges lack costings and fail to resolve structural failures. Plaid Cymru’s minority administration claims rapid progress on its 100-day plan, but opposition leaders describe the findings as an absolute indictment of decades of socialist rule.
More on PISA results BBC news Report Sep 8th
