Kirsty Williams: Our approach to STEM is set out in our STEM in education and training plan. Education reforms will see practitioner-led and evidence-based changes to the STEM curriculum, with networks for excellence to support our teaching workforce. We are also enhancing computer coding in schools.
Kirsty Williams: Our overall approach is set out in our STEM in education and training plan. Actions include new rigorous STEM-related GCSEs and A-levels, which have been supported at unprecedented levels—over £10 million via our education consortia across all subjects—gaining very positive feedback from practitioners.
Kirsty Williams: Torfaen County Borough Council have statutory responsibility for improvement in their schools. I expect them to work closely with Education Achievement Service consortium to provide support and challenge to the school. An agreed action plan is in place to address Estyn’s concerns and I understand progress is measured through monthly improvement meetings.
Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government is committed to supporting the delivery of healthy relationships education. This is why Welsh Government has funded programmes such as, Hafan Cymru’s Spectrum Project, and the All Wales School Liaison Core Programme to ensure that appropriate support and resources are available for teachers.
Kirsty Williams: The maximum fee that may be charged by a Welsh institution is currently £9,000. I confirmed yesterday that, from 2018, I have agreed to return to the pre-2012 policy of an inflation-linked maximum tuition fee level for three academic years.
Kirsty Williams: School governing bodies and local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that they recruit sufficient numbers of individuals with the appropriate skills, qualifications and experience to meet the needs of the school. This includes the arrangements for deploying temporary supply teachers to cover staff absence as required.
Kirsty Williams: The teaching of languages is highly valued in our schools, which is why the Global Futures plan was published in 2015. The plan aims to improve the teaching of modern foreign languages across all schools in Wales, and aims to provide all young people with opportunities to learn languages.
Kirsty Williams: We’ve made considerable progress towards a self-improving system in Wales and must build on these strong foundations. These gains have been driven by our national model for regional working, which is based on collaboration and school-to-school support, and is enabling us to plan together for the new curriculum.
Kirsty Williams: Presiding Officer, can I thank Michelle for her question? I believe higher education is a joint endeavour, one where the individual benefits, but also we as a society benefit too. And that’s why the universal grant of £1,000, which was recommended by Diamond in his independent review, will be taken forward. This Government believes in the principle of universalism within that progressive...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Llyr, for those questions. With regard to setting fee levels, what I've always said consistently in this Chamber is that I will take a number of factors into consideration when addressing that point. Those factors have included the state of the Welsh Government's own finances, the impact on students, and, indeed, the state of the finances of the sector as a whole. Only...
Kirsty Williams: That is a long list of questions, Presiding Officer, so I’ll try to get through them as quickly as I can. I think the parity between modes of study is what makes this package of support so important and unique, and I believe it will be the subject of other nations looking to see what Wales has done. Indeed, Scotland are already committed to a review of their own system and are looking very...
Kirsty Williams: It is indeed a long title, Presiding Officer, and it’s going to be quite a long statement as well. Presiding Officer, I’m very pleased that, today, we can confirm that we in Wales are able to convert the principles of equity and excellence into radical and rational reforms of student support and higher education funding. Last November, I published the Government’s response to the final...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Rhun. As you heard yesterday from the First Minister, 500 remains—[Interruption.] If you let me finish, 500 remains the long-term goal of the Welsh Government for the next but one set of PISA results. Therefore, you know, we need to make progress in the next set of PISA results if we’re to hit that next target, and that’s why I, quite rightly, whilst I’m in this position,...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Darren. I regret your unfortunate phraseology, which I don’t think is called for in this situation, especially when referring it to a male and a female Member of this Assembly. It has unfortunate connotations. However, you are absolutely right: Wales’s current performance in the PISA rankings is not good enough. It wasn’t good enough when I sat over there, and it...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Darren, for the opportunity to discuss the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment today, after yesterday’s questions on the 2021 assessment. I’m clear that I expect to see improvement in Wales’s 2018 PISA score, but in particular I want to see progress in the performance above the seventy-fifth percentile.
Kirsty Williams: First of all, it’s not a committee, it’s a commission, and it will have the status of such. Perhaps the question should be: ‘Only in Wales, the answer to the problem is to have yet another body’, which is what I believe the Member is in favour of creating. We already have—[Interruption.] I think we already had, at the last count, 47 individual bodies in Wales that had some remit or...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Suzy, for that contribution. As you will know, increasing the opportunities for students, school pupils and those in FE and HE to acquire language skills in the Welsh language and to be able to utilise those skills in their mode of studies is something that is very important to me. With regards to FE, we’re currently asking Delyth Evans to do a piece of work on whether...
Kirsty Williams: I would hope that HEFCW’s website is correct and is an accurate description of their employment practices, but I will double check with the chief executive, and confirm that to you. With regards to the size of the commission, I’m always a firm believer in the principle that form follows function, and at this stage, while we’re consulting on the form of the commission, we’re not at...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much to Michelle for her questions. Costs are currently being developed and will be published at the same time as the technical consultation, which will happen later on this year. The commission will be accountable to Welsh Ministers. Parity of esteem is a crucial issue for me. One of the reasons for having one single body organising and having a strategic overview for...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Simon. Can I begin where you began with regard to ‘The Guardian’ article? I am absolutely dismayed by the misleading headline and by the factual inaccuracies that pepper that particular so-called piece of journalism. It is very disappointing and it is a gross mischaracterisation of what is going on in that particular community and, indeed, the Welsh Government’s...
