Is there a crisis in Welsh education?

The current state of Welsh education has become a matter of widespread concern in recent years. Certainly, many of those outside Wales have formed a view of Welsh education that is extremely unfavourable. For example, following a series of well-publicised clashes between representatives of the two governments, the UK Government has made clear its belief that – as with the delivery of other public services – the Welsh Government’s educational provision is highly unsatisfactory.

Writing recently in the Western Mail (28 June 2014), the then UK Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, summarised this position:

Wales is an object lesson in what happens when you abandon reform. Ed Miliband recently told the Welsh Labour Conference that Wales’ Labour Government is ‘proving to the rest of the country the difference that Labour can make’.
It’s certainly doing that on education. Thousands of children falling behind as a result of rigid dogma and a refusal to reform – that’s the difference that Labour has made in Wales.