Powys' 'best students leaving county to continue education'
At a meeting of Powys County Council's Learning and Skills scrutiny committee on Monday, June 16, councillors and lay members received a report on school standards and improvement.
The report also included data on GCSE and A-Level exam results which show that Powys is performing well below the standards of the past.
When it comes to A-Level results, Powys come in below the all Wales average in five of six results categories.
On the A*(star) to E grade table Powys come in joint 19th place with only 65 per cent getting all three grades.
This is well below neighbours Ceredigion Council who come top of the class with 77 per cent.
Cllr Gareth E Jones (Powys Independents) said: 'Have you done any work around the significant number of learners that are going out of county for their post-16 education to Hereford, Shrewsbury and Merthyr.
'What impact do those learners going out of county have on the overall performance of post-16?
'My guess would be that better quality learners go out of county and if they had stayed our overall performance may be better.'
Head of school improvement and learning Anwen Orrells said: 'You would be correct in assuming that the more able are the ones that are leaving.'
She said that the council knew how many post-16 pupils were out of county but didn't have details of their results from last summer.
Cllr James Gibson-Watt (Liberal Democrat) stood down as council leader last month but has stayed on in the cabinet to start off the post-16 education review.
The preferred option already backed by council officers could see all English medium school sixth forms vanish – in favour of two specialist sixth form schools to be based in Brecon and Newtown.
While Welsh medium secondary schools would also join forces and have one separate sixth form operation across potentially three campuses.
This preferred option has already come in for heavy criticism with many believing it would accelerate the exodus of pupils our of Powys.
Cllr Gibson-Watt said: 'If ever we needed evidence of some radical reform in post-16 this paper sums it up.
'If you look at the details of the decline in performance it is quite shocking.
'We have to create a system that allows them to stay in county.
'We're in a situation where only 65 per cent are getting A* to E grades.
'Let's be frank, an A-level grade below C is not much use to anyone in life, particularly to get into higher education.
'I remember Powys was consistently in the top three counties for GCSE and A-level outcomes and here we are languishing in the bottom quartile.'
Between 2010 and 2019 sixth forms across the saw a 33 per cent decline. falling from 1,445 to 978 in 2019.
This means that funding from the Welsh Government based on pupils numbers has dropped from £6.5 million to £4.4 million
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