YOUNGSTERS in Wales are being let down by the Welsh Government’s education policies, a Gwent MP has claimed.

Speaking in Parliament this week Conservative Monmouth MP David Davies said the devolution education to Wales had resulted in a lower-quality system overall.

Although GCSE results in Wales have been lower than England since 2007, this year the number of pupils gaining A* to C marks was equal in the two countries. But this year also saw Wales’ worst A-Level results for 14 years, with 22 per cent of students gaining A or A* grades, three per cent lower than England and seven per cent lower than Northern Ireland.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Davies said: “On any reasonable comparison of the difference between the education systems in England and in Wales, England comes out on top.

“And I say that as an ex-Welsh comprehensive school pupil with three children currently going through the state system in Wales.”

Mr Davies put the blame at the feet of the Labour-controlled Welsh Government, which has refused to follow Westminster’s lead and reintroduce grammar schools and abolished classroom assessments for teachers.

“Labour members like to promise a nation fit from cradle to grave, but as far as education is concerned, they have delivered a failure from the nursery to the bursary,” he said.

But Labour Ogmore MP Chris Elmore accused Mr Davies of “painting a rather bleak picture of the education system in Wales.”

“Over the past five years there have been improvements to GCSE and A-Level results and the gap has closed significantly because of underperformance in England and improved performance in Wales,” he said.

But Mr Davies stood by his claims, saying “there are still many problems here.”

In England we have rejected the sort of left-wing, anti-selection, anti-testing, anti-choice dogma that Labour has followed since the 1960s, which is completely out of date,” he said.

“That is why we are delivering higher standards for pupils in England than for those in Wales.”