Gareth Bennett: ..., quickly go over those points of difference. We believe that the Bill will lead to more divergence from the curriculum in England, leading to more difficulty in comparing the performances of school students in Wales with their peers in England. The continuance of the Welsh baccalaureate, which effectively compels Welsh students to study for an extra A-level, which is not widely...
Gareth Bennett: ...we feel that Welsh language provision should be appropriate to the needs of the local population. We think, on the whole, that it would be better to focus resources on saving and keeping open rural schools in Welsh-speaking west Wales, rather than letting those schools close, which is what has been happening and what continues to happen. But we can't do anything to keep those schools open...
Gareth Bennett: .... It is a difficult situation. It seems to me that the experience of home learning has varied massively, which, I suppose, we should have expected. Before we can address how to catch up on the lost education of school-aged children as we come out of the COVID crisis, we will need somebody to assess authoritatively exactly where we are. Given that, do you foresee that Estyn will have a big...
Gareth Bennett: ...is an issue of how much guidance the Welsh Government should provide. It is a bit of a balancing act, as you suggested in an earlier answer. David Melding just cited the good practice of Headlands School, and I think that's interesting, because I'm wondering, in the longer term, once we've emerged from the COVID crisis, if you see any positives arising from the experience of remote...
Gareth Bennett: 6. What is the Welsh Government doing to improve education standards in South Wales Central throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56087
Gareth Bennett: ...to encourage the growth of Welsh. Sometimes, making something compulsory does not really work. We did have the Welsh Government taking a decision a few years ago to make the teaching of Welsh in schools compulsory up to the age of 16. That decision has proved to be contentious and I wonder if it has actually worked in increasing to any meaningful level the usage of Welsh, by which I mean...
Gareth Bennett: So I am making a bit of an effort with the language, and I would point out that I do have an O-level in Welsh from my school days. I'd rather say it was a GCSE, because the O-level does age me a bit, but I'm afraid it was an O-level. So, can I say that efforts to boost the usage of Welsh are generally to be welcomed, albeit the best use of Welsh is as a living language, and resources are...
Gareth Bennett: ...crass stupidity or whether the atrocious effects of their aspirations are actually entirely deliberate, I do not know. The obvious thread running through their various points is the downgrading of education standards in Wales. It is so obvious that I almost suspect that it is being done deliberately. A consistent theme is that they want us to have different exams and standards from those...
Gareth Bennett: Thank you, Minister. In schools in England, the UK Government's intention is to go ahead with most exams next summer. Now, I'm aware from what the Minister just said in response to David Rees that she's making a statement on 9 November, and I realise she will not want to pre-empt this. Notwithstanding that, exams are the fairest and most transparent way to assess the ability of schoolpupils,...
Gareth Bennett: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of education in South Wales Central? OQ55746
Gareth Bennett: ...a bunch of political anoraks and wake up to the reality of what will affect normal people. Welsh Labour and Plaid are also incensed that the UK Government may interfere in areas like health and education. This is rather laughable, since we have a health service that is shot to pieces and an education system that is plummeting downwards through the world rankings. This is hardly a sound...
Gareth Bennett: ...to leave. In any event, the devolved bodies of the UK were not set up for this kind of purpose. They were set up to allow for scrutiny in certain devolved policy areas such as health, housing and education. They were not supposed to interfere with the workings of the UK Government as regards clearly non-devolved areas such as foreign policy and international trade deals. The First Minister...
Gareth Bennett: Will the First Minister make a statement on the provision of relationships and sexuality education in Welsh schools?
Gareth Bennett: ...that I would welcome. Grass fires, obviously, are a menace. They can destroy habitats, they kill livestock and they even threaten properties and businesses. First Minister, you did mention the educational side in an earlier answer, which I welcome, as I say. Is there a need for a cross-cutting strategy, going across the various ministerial portfolios, in order to deal with this problem?
Gareth Bennett: ...the month where we often experience a rise in grass fires. The vast majority of grass fires in Wales are, unfortunately, started deliberately. Can you outline what the Welsh Government is doing to educate people about the dangers of starting grass fires?
Gareth Bennett: ...was also raising the issue that, in harness with your legislation, we may need more support for parents. You mentioned that health visitors and midwives could potentially be used, I think, in an educational way, in encouraging parenting that doesn't involve physical chastisement and, of course, we need to avoid that as far as we possibly can. So, I agree with all that. The bit that Siân...
Gareth Bennett: ...but of course I accept there may well be a supermajority in this place to do exactly that. So, if we do embark on this change, I think we do need to ensure we do have a clear programme of political education. That's been mentioned by many people. I know that the Llywydd is particularly interested in this, and hopefully we can use the experience of the Youth Parliament in developing that,...
Gareth Bennett: ...and it's going to be a difficult job to bring all of these approaches together in a coherent programme. So, there are difficulties ahead. Jenny Rathbone was just talking about the importance of the school diet, and she also mentioned public procurement, which is something that has cropped up recently on the environment committee, which is chaired by Mike Hedges, who's also a very keen...
Gareth Bennett: ...to develop this sector, and I hope that her very capable successor will continue with this work. It does require an interactive approach between the Welsh Government, the private sector and further education colleges. We also need to encourage more infill development and small-scale housing developments, which will tend to be attractive not to the large house builders, but rather to the...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, one of the early policies enacted by the Welsh Government was to introduce a new educational qualification, the Welsh baccalaureate, or 'Welsh bac', as it is known. The Welsh bac has come under criticism, so do you still believe it has been a worthwhile addition to the national curriculum in Wales?
