John Jerrim

They can actually pick the language of the test that they take it in.

So if in Wales, about 17% of the pupils took the test in Welsh.

And the child chooses or the school chooses?

Mostly the school chooses in terms of Welsh medium schools will often instruct the school to take it in the Welsh language.

Yeah, so we've done some analysis of this issue previously and we found that it does matter which language the children take it in.

With those taking it in Welsh tending to perform lower than those taking it in English.

Any idea why?

I mean, there's a lot of potential reasons why this could be the case, including several methodological issues.

So, one of the things that happens in Wales when young people take their GCSEs is they often get a choice whether to answer in English or in Welsh or rather they get to see questions in both languages.

That's not the case in the PISA study where essentially they have to choose one or the other.

So, you know, that's something that could affect the results and it is something that's probably a bit unusual to the children.

There's also been potentially longstanding issues with the translation, obviously, of Pisa into other languages as well.

And Welsh is one of those.

And because it's a relatively minor language with not that many people, obviously, internationally speaking Welsh and taking it, it doesn't have quite the same level of verification as some of the more major languages out there.

So they are potential kind of methodological reasons why there's a difference.

Yeah, sure.

That is also a possible reason as well.

I think the interesting thing that we see in PISA is that it's not only reading where Welsh children tend to perform lower than the rest of the UK.

You also see a difference in other subjects like mathematics and science as well.

So although it is pronounced in reading and slightly more pronounced than in other subjects, you know, you do see it kind of across the board, which suggests it's not only a language issue while Wales is underperforming relative to the rest of the UK.