Could it really be that teachers still aren't trained in the key principles of teaching children to read? Here's Cathy Rastel again.

It's interesting, you know, I often start my research papers by saying reading is the most important outcome of primary school.

but it really is, right? It's the most important thing that's going on in a primary school classroom because it sets children up for a lifetime of learning.

I feel like if I could say to any teacher, what's the most important thing? Remember, that's the most important thing.

We have one chance to get it right.

And it's vital that we make the best use of that moment.

So that's the most important thing I'd say.

But it turns out that this systematic explicit approach to teaching children has not been welcomed in all classrooms, despite the mounting evidence that this is exactly what the children need.

What do we know that is more credible and more recent about Welsh primary school leavers and their ability to read?

Well, there's a very good assessment called the PISA, and it stands for Program for International Student Assessment.

Now, this is a, an assessment on reading comprehension, amongst other things, that's conducted when children are fifteen years old.

It's conducted about every three years, and around eighty nations participate.

And the thing about PISA is that it has very high technical standards, strong sampling protocols, rigorous translation processes.

And what that means is that we can compare scores from year to year over time, and we can also compare scores across nations.

What we know about Wales is that they did very poorly indeed in the twenty twenty-two exercise.

What else did we learn from that round of PISA exams?