{"id":20808,"date":"2018-05-11T13:29:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T13:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/?p=20808"},"modified":"2018-10-29T15:02:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T15:02:51","slug":"hamilton-urges-welsh-government-to-back-away-from-universal-baccalaureate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/hamilton-urges-welsh-government-to-back-away-from-universal-baccalaureate\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton urges Welsh Government to back away from &#8216;universal&#8217; Baccalaureate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Welsh UKIP leader Neil Hamilton has sparked a row over the Welsh Baccalaureate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr Hamilton told Assembly members that elite universities were &#8220;not terribly interested\u201d in the qualification.<\/p>\n<p>His comment drew heckles from the government benches during First Minister&#8217;s Questions at the Senedd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe top three universities don\u2019t require it at all,\u201d Mr Hamilton added. \u201cDoes the First Minister not see that in the circumstances, this is a distraction from a more useful use of time in schools?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carwyn Jones said the Welsh Baccalaureate gave \u201cbreadth\u201d to the curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>The qualification prioritises developing students&#8217; skills over more traditional forms of assessment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do students think?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">not to be dramatic but welsh bacc is literally the most boring, soul draining subject ever and I cannot wait to never have to do it again<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emily Harrison (@Emzy452) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Emzy452\/status\/950414491744919552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 8, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welsh bacc???its a no from me&#8230;&#8230; it&#8217;s literally as irrelevant as those collectible dishes my nan keeps<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ind (@india_davis9) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/india_davis9\/status\/843868549869424642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welsh bacc is one of the worst things in the world<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 izzy (@izzyparryyy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/izzyparryyy\/status\/941395210285789184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Welsh Government is aiming for &#8220;universal rollout&#8221; of the Welsh Baccalaureate by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Data from Oxford and Cambridge universities revealed that of the 153 conditional offers made in 2017 to Welsh students, none included the Welsh Baccalaureate.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Durham nor Warwick accept the Welsh Baccalaureate in place of an A-level, while the LSE says the qualification is a \u201cnon-preferred\u201d subject.<\/p>\n<p>Research by Cardiff University, which accepts the Welsh Baccalaureate, found that students who achieved it did worse academically when at university than those who did not.<\/p>\n<p>Other Russell Group universities such as Bristol and Exeter accept the Welsh Baccalaureate as an A-level equivalent.<\/p>\n<p>In a report released last month, exams watchdog Qualifications Wales said Welsh Baccalaureate taught \u201chighly relevant skills\u201d &#8211; but that its structure is too complex, with some aspects \u201cover-assessed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Roath-based Lynne Phillips is a piano teacher. Many of her students study the baccalaureate in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest criticism I hear from students is it\u2019s one big checkbox exercise, and it impacts on A-level choices. They see it taking up a large amount of time that they could productively use elsewhere,\u201d said Ms Phillips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a non-compulsory subject I think it\u2019s actually probably rather good, but as a compulsory one it\u2019s a waste of space,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Welsh UKIP leader Neil Hamilton has sparked a row over the Welsh Baccalaureate. Mr Hamilton told Assembly members that elite universities were &#8220;not terribly interested\u201d in the qualification. His comment drew heckles from the government benches during First Minister&#8217;s Questions at the Senedd. \u201cThe top three universities don\u2019t require it at all,\u201d Mr Hamilton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[744],"tags":[182,1382,311,1555,1556,112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20808"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20984,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20808\/revisions\/20984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/cjsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}