Fewer pupils meeting standards

An investigation has begun into why boys are lagging behind girls

Seven and eleven-year-olds in Wales are not doing as well at school as they did a year ago, new figures indicate.

National Curriculum key stage one and two assessments show fewer pupils met expected standards in all subjects.

Children aged 14 did better in English and Welsh than in 2006, but worse in maths and science.

Girls continued to outperform boys in all three age groups and every subject area with the biggest gap 16.5% for 14-year olds studying Welsh.

The schools inspection service Estyn has begun investigating ways of improving the performance of boys.

It's alarming that the trend hasn't started to converge after so much effort, so much resources and so much political priority had been given by Rhodri Morgan and the Labour party Shadow Education Minister Alun Cairns

Its report is expected to be published early next year.

Among seven-year-olds, the biggest gap between boys and girls was in English, where it was 9.7%.

The smallest difference was in science, where boys were 3.6% behind girls.

The largest lead by 11-year-old girls was in Welsh were 13.6% ahead of boys, with the margin dropping to 2.9% in maths.

At 14 girls outstripped boys by 16.5% in Welsh, with boys closest to the girls in maths where they were 2.2% behind.

Welsh assembly Conservatives described the gender gap as "alarming".

Shadow Education Minister Alun Cairns said: "It's alarming that the trend hasn't started to converge after so much effort, so much resources and so much political priority had been given by Rhodri Morgan and the Labour party."

A slight dip in performance is to be expected once in a while, if results get better every year we simply face criticism that things must be getting easier Welsh Assembly Government spokesman

Mr Cairns said the fall in the number of pupils meeting expected standards was "extremely worrying bearing in mind the government promised 'education, education, education' as its first three priorities".

The Welsh Assembly Government is working with local councils on a new "school effectiveness strategy" to be launched during the autumn.

But a spokesperson said "good progress" had been made across all key stages since 1999.

'Quick fixes'

A statement said: "A slight dip in performance is to be expected once in a while, if results get better every year we simply face criticism that things must be getting easier.

On the gender gap, the spokesperson said ministers would "consider carefully" Estyn's investigation.

The spokesperson said school's chief inspector Susan Lewis had highlighted "the importance of skill in language as a factor in performance in other subjects".

The statement warned there were no "quick fixes" as "it often takes years to reap the rewards of some excellent work undertaken by our teachers and schools".

"Most important of all though is the fact that we aim to achieve high standards, and that the gap in performance has closed in 2007 in most subjects across all key stages," the spokesperson added.

Schools and local education authorities now have a chance to correct any errors they believe are contained in the provisional National Curriculum assessment figures before they are due to be published next month.