This episode of Coffee House Shots looks at the latest PISA international education rankings, which showed England performing well in reading, maths and science while Scotland and Wales lagged and saw falling scores. The discussion credits reforms begun under the coalition government - phonics teaching, curriculum rigour, school freedoms - for England's relative success, and argues that current education ministers are unpicking those changes in favour of a more uniform, "equity"-focused approach. They discuss the Schools Bill, criticise reluctance to praise free schools such as Michaela Community School, and suggest teaching unions and civil service culture at the Department for Education are resistant to reform.
The conversation broadens into the shadow education secretary's priorities, including university funding, cutting a proportion of degree places to fund more apprenticeships, and concerns about SEND provision and children's social care, referencing the Casey review's findings on grooming gangs and care-experienced people in the justice system. They also touch on Cambridge University's handling of the Jason Arday case and DEI policies, plus plans to reduce screen time and political content in schools.
Further & Higher Education
Key points from the discussion
The points they raised, and the official data behind them.
The hosts noted that Britain as a whole ranks in the top 10 internationally for English, maths and science in the PISA assessments, driven largely by England's performance.
~01:39PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an OECD survey testing 15-year-olds' reading, maths and science ability across dozens of countries every three years.
Related UK data
See Education — GCSE Results →Context
PISA results were published this week and showed England performing well relative to international peers, while Scotland and Wales recorded declining scores. The hosts linked England's relative strength to education reforms introduced under the coalition and Conservative governments after 2010, including a focus on phonics and curriculum rigour.
The hosts referenced that education reforms credited with lifting standards were introduced starting around 2010, with the benefits appearing roughly 16 years later in the recent PISA results.
~03:53The shadow education secretary said the Conservatives' post-16 plan aims to cut a proportion of university degree places to fund more apprenticeships, describing it as a similar figure to one announced by Suella Braverman a couple of months earlier.
~18:59- Not on Trend yet · adding this series
The shadow education secretary said the Conservative plan would double the number of apprenticeships available, funded partly by reallocating money from cut degree places.
~19:08 One host recalled that the Blair government pushed a target of 50% of young people going to university.
~18:20Official figure · University Participation
36.3%2025 · UCAS · end-of-cycle dataExplore the board →Charted aboveContext
The Blair government set an ambition in 1999 for around half of young people to go into higher education by age 30, a target that was broadly reached in the following decades and has since been debated over concerns about the value of some degrees.