Labour Leader, Dimitri Batrouni has expressed his concerns about Monmouthshire Schools, after uncovering some statistics from the Welsh Government.

The percentages, displayed in a table from 2013, show that in Key Stage 4 exam results for students on free schools meals, all schools are in the lowest 25% across Wales.

Councillor Batrouni said, "The Tories have managed to lead Monmouthshire into special measures for education and have now led us to the bottom of the table for pupils achieving 5 GCSEs at grades A to G. A child leaving school without 5 GCSEs is going to really struggle in the job market.

"It clearly shows that Tory-controlled Monmouthshire is failing our children and limiting their life chances. This is just not acceptable and it shows us that education is not safe under the Conservatives."

But while Monmouthshire County Council have accepted the figures, they have admitted that they are slightly out of date, and have expressed that improvements have been made since the release.

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council said, "Monmouthshire's schools continue to perform substantially above the Welsh average for both GCSE and A level attainment.

"In 2013, over seven out of ten our young people (75.4%) achieved grades A* to C at GCSE, massively above the Welsh average of 65.7%, and 99.9% of our pupils left school with a recognised qualification.

"We accept that our place on Wales' pupil attainment tables, when compared with schools with a similar level of free school meals uptake, is less positive – although it has improved significantly on the data presented with the press release."

The council have also spoken out at the concern of the method of measurement within these figures, and argue that using free schools meals as a measurement of students in need is not very effective. They argue that for some reasons many parents do not take up free school meals, and some that do are considered affluent, and they welcome an upcoming change from the Welsh government in such measurements.

The council spokesman added, "Whilst the Welsh Government has announced that it is to abandon this method of measurement, our improvement over the figures presented has been substantial. We are now focused on the present and await with interest the scheme that will replace this method of measurement."