Foundational reading and arithmetic before anything else

The problem

A significant proportion of children move through primary school without securing foundational reading and arithmetic, and the gap compounds every year afterwards.

Why it matters

Every later education policy is built on this foundation. Without it, the rest is decoration.

Proposed solution

Treat measured foundational learning as the single headline indicator for primary education, published school-cluster by school-cluster.

How it would be implemented

Advocate for regular, independent, publicly reported assessment at cluster level, and support volunteer-run remedial reading groups where communities want them.

Risks, and what we would do about them