Debate contribution: Programme for International Student Assessment Report
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 6 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Programme for International Student Assessment Report
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5776912
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I agree with Mr Sheehan on this occasion, because he is right. If young people fall behind in the early years, and if there is no intervention, it is very challenging for them to be able to catch up. We therefore need to assess fundamentally what has gone on in those early years. Setting aside the PISA results, CCEA's data has, for the first time in 20 years, raised real concerns. The Member will know that principals of secondary schools often refer to the need to provide catch-up lessons, because so many primary-school leavers are not proficient in basic maths and literacy. That presents a real difficulty. We therefore need to ask ourselves this question: at a time when there is significant funding for free school meals provision and extended schools, and when tens of millions of pounds are being directed into areas of high disadvantage, why is attainment deteriorating? A serious look at the funding approach is required. TransformED is about providing a curriculum that is accessible to all. That is why we need to make sure that the curriculum closes the attainment gap, particularly for those from a socially disadvantaged background. That underpins everything that we are doing through TransformED. Mr Sheehan is a social justice campaigner, as am I when it comes to education. If he wants, as I do, people from a working-class background to get the best possible support and for the gap to be closed between them and the more well-off who can afford tutors, he should support all the initiatives that I am taking.
261 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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