No one should feel embarrassed about looking back at the The Learning Country, first published in 2001 after Welsh devolution. It was a moment in time that mapped out the challenges ahead for the new education nation. It paved the way, in more than just tone, for the increasing ability of Wales to create a distinct education system.

This paragraph from that early document seems to capture the pride in the past, but also the nature of the challenge ahead:  

“By turns there have been the powerful initiatives to establish a national university; to introduce an independent schools’ inspectorate early in the 20th century; to provide Welsh-medium primary and secondary schools after the Second World War; to establish distinct funding councils for further and higher education; to introduce a National Curriculum for Wales; and to sustain partnership working between schools, local and central government.”

Innovation in education was nothing new in Wales. And partnership was seen as the bedrock for a country for which knowledge, skills and economic success were key to its future.   

“The pace of technological, social and economic change makes it imperative that learning must be made accessible to all; that what is provided must aspire to, and actually deliver, excellence; and that continuous improvement should be habitual. Raising educational standards and skill levels is critical to ensuring the long-term, sustainable, economic and social development of Wales.”

In short, education is good for Wales. In fact, it’s good for you and your country.  

But was that early optimism - even the sense of renewal - hit hard by the double whammy of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests in 2009 and, to an extent, 2015?

Pisa tests provide a useful view of where a country’s education system is and where it ought to go next. The actual tests taken by a sample of Welsh schools and pupils were never going to give the full picture of a whole system - how could they? Pisa was always designed as an important snapshot, not a sacred text.

It may not always be intended, but with Pisa, the headline can too often become the message. The ‘shock to the system’ can become internalised, and gnaw away at self-confidence and belief.

Did we too easily forget the strengths of education across Wales?

These judgements prompted concrete actions around school improvement, supporting teachers and school leadership. In my view, there was a key moment when the then education minister, Leighton Andrews, in a speech entitled Teaching makes a difference, told it like it was and set out a route ahead.

Qualified for Life was another milestone and sought to focus on school improvement, the Welsh way. There was important recognition that the evidence on school improvement was clear: it is the quality of teaching that matters above all other factors.

If you don’t develop and support teachers and leaders, then how can they properly support and inspire our children and young people?

Meilyr Rowlands, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, said this in the Estyn 2015-16 report:  

“Progress with fundamentals such as basic literacy and numeracy, and behaviour and attendance, that learners need to be ‘ready to learn’ generally continues, but variability within and between providers remains a prominent feature of our education system. In all sectors, there are good and excellent providers, including in relatively deprived areas, but the gap between providers that are doing well and those that are not is still too wide.”

It is this variability between schools, or indeed within a school, that presents a big challenge.

The sharper focus on school standards continues with Schools Challenge Cymru targeting support for schools, reminiscent of the London Challenge.

No education system can afford to be complacent or lack a focus on standards.

In Wales, the beginnings of curriculum reform - Successful Futures - or the Donaldson Review seemed to meet with general support. This review also supported recommendations for the need for a framework of digital skills in education, the Digital Competence Framework.

From an independent ICT steering group report in 2013 had grown ideas for one of the biggest potential game changers for education in Wales: not boxing off ‘digital’ to a class a week or after-school club, but cultivating the ‘digital promise’ across the curriculum.

This Welsh Digital Competence Framework is important, forward-looking and distinctive. The creation of the Hwb has also been a useful platform to harness digital technology to support teaching, as well as share and consolidate learning.

Those co-chairs and members of that early steering group should be commended for their imagination and pioneering views. As they said then, digital literacy is a starting point to harness technology for good.

I think that the creation of this Digital Competence Framework is a case study in how to involve educators, industry, policymakers and politicians.

Recently I was a guest at a Central South Consortium conference at Cardiff City FC, where in the words of one leader, there was a real sense of ‘heads up’ and renewed confidence. Although reform, another said, had often felt like continual waves on the shore, there were reasons to celebrate education in Wales.

There was a real sense of progress, reflection and focus on practice - the craft of the classroom.

And it’s obvious, too, that reforming, nurturing and maintaining an education system is never easy. Leadership is key and I like the collaborative tone of present education secretary Kirsty Williams and her cabinet colleagues.

It’s important to celebrate where we are on that education reform journey. Celebrate uniqueness, but bring coherence. Continue to support educators and invest in useful accountability.

Take time to explain why and how Wales needs to be that learning country. And there’s always untapped resources willing to help. Always.

Ty Goddard is a co-founder of the Education Foundation. The Education Wales Summit takes place in Cardiff on 16 May 2017. 

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and like Tes on Facebook