TODAY the University and College Union (UCU) is holding its Cradle to Grave conference to defend public education, with a particular emphasis on protecting post-16 education.

For voters in England interested in social justice, the barrage of free schools, academies, back-to-basics exams, times tables and Gove-ish “reforms” must be horrifying.

Wales is sticking to its own and different path, but being right in principle does not ensure that the right outcomes are delivered, and we still have a real fight to win equal access for all.

So I will join the UCU conference today to set out how Wales has developed its own education system over the 15 years of devolution. Much is very different to England: learning through play in the foundation phase, retention of a fully comprehensive, community school model, the development of Welsh-language teaching and qualifications based on assessment as well as formal examinations.

At post-16 things get even more diverse. Wales has retained the education maintenance allowance for students from the poorest backgrounds and subsidises the Tory/Lib Dem £9,000 tuition fees so that no student pays above £3,800.

This doesn’t mean that things are perfect in Wales. Our pupils once outperformed those in England but successive Labour Welsh governments have taken their eye off the ball and Welsh pupils have slid down the OECD’s Pisa comparison tables.

I am very concerned that by letting educational standards drift, Labour ministers in Cardiff have abandoned the single most effective tool for tackling poverty and improving the Welsh economy. Andreas Schleicher of the OECD said: “Your education today is your economy tomorrow.” That sentence encapsulates the failure of the Welsh government to develop our nation to its full potential.

This is not the fault of devolution. We have nearly all the tools we need. Scotland, with a similar set of tools, has marched ahead. London has improved significantly despite the challenges of poverty and a very mobile population.

One of the key challenges facing us is breaking the cycle of poverty and the link between low educational attainment and poverty. Wales has a higher rate of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) than England — some 9,100 16-18 year olds and 49,000 19-24 year olds.

This has a huge social cost. The Audit Commission has estimated the average lifetime social cost of being a Neet at a young age to be £56,000 per individual. This just entrenches poverty in our communities and the Welsh government is left spending over £108 million on post-statutory education interventions next year to tackle worklessness and poverty.

There’s no socialism in abandoning young people to the same fate as their parents and grandparents, or in tolerating lower educational standards in downtrodden, ex-industrial communities because “it’s always been like this.”

There are two key failures in post-16 education — too few options for young people who want to stay in education without attending university, and too little support for students from poorer backgrounds who

do wish to go into higher education.

Plaid Cymru demonstrated our commitment to change this while in coalition with Labour in 2007-11, when we protected Welsh students from the rise in tuition fees. We demonstrated it again by forging our budget deal with the current Labour Welsh government, in which we gained £40m extra for apprenticeships. A higher-level apprentice can be as economically successful as a graduate in terms of income earned.

To unlock these opportunities for our young people, we need the right qualifications. In Wales we retain the current GCSE, A-level and AS qualifications. We also have our own Welsh Baccalaureate which addresses the wider skills required for progression in learning, work and life and which aims to educate holistically rather than teach to an exam.

Plaid Cymru wants young people to stay in education or training of some kind until 18. There are very few job opportunities for those who leave at 16.

Everyone should have the skills to continue learning all their lives. But formal education post-18 should also be free.

I have always fought for free undergraduate tuition. As an MP previously, I opposed the first introduction of tuition fees and warned that they would open the door to marketisation in education.

Plaid Cymru can do some things to protect against that marketisation.

We would ensure that those studying subjects vital to the Welsh economy and public goals would pay lower or even no tuition fees in Wales.

This can help solve a real shortage both in those studying medicine, science and technology and students from particularly challenging backgrounds.

No young person in Wales should be kicking their heels with no prospects, no qualifications and no hope. We would change that.

Simon Thomas is Plaid Cymru shadow education minister and Welsh Assembly member for Mid and West.