Education Should Be a Leveller

From Planet 215

Huw Lewis interviewed by Carl Emery
In an article published in the Autumn 2013 issue (211) of Planet, just after Huw Lewis was appointed as Education Minister, Carl Emery warned that Welsh values, which were protected within education policy in the early years of devolution, are now threatened by neoliberalising shifts within Westminster and the Welsh Government, and by cuts to public services. In March 2014 we held a public forum, ‘Is Wales Well?’, using Carl Emery’s article as a starting point for a wider discussion about defending communal values in a time of austerity. You can read Carl’s article and listen to podcasts recorded at the event here.
In this issue, Carl Emery interviews Huw Lewis about his first year as Education Minister, asking to what extent his vision for Welsh education diverges from the model found over the border, and whether Welsh education can foster an ethos of social justice and egalitarianism.

Taking Rhodri Morgan’s ‘clear red water’ metaphor, how do you think this fits with today’s picture of education in Wales?

Devolution has given us the power to create bespoke, distinctly Welsh education policies for the benefit of our learners. I am committed to the community-led comprehensive model of schooling. Our education system in Wales is bilingual. We have already put in train important changes to raise standards in literacy and numeracy across the board…