Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 5 July 2016.
Leader of the house, can I ask for two statements from the education Secretary? Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Gwent Music summer showcase concert at St David’s Hall, with music from schools right across south-east Wales. This regional collaboration across schools should be celebrated and promoted, I’m sure you’ll agree, and so any additional support, financial or otherwise, from the Welsh Government, would be very much appreciated. So, I wonder if we could have a statement from the education Secretary on what is being done to support programmes such as Gwent Music showcase across other parts of Wales.
Secondly, this lunchtime, I visited the British Council event in Tŷ Hywel, which I know a number of Members went to, which was trying to promote the teaching of modern languages across Wales. There has been, as I’m sure the Cabinet is aware, a drop-off in the teaching of foreign languages across Wales in recent years, rather than the increase that we would like to see, and I think, comparative with England, the situation is worse here. So, could we have a statement on what can be done to try and arrest this decline in the teaching of modern foreign languages in schools across Wales, so that Welsh pupils are just as able as pupils from across the rest of the UK—including Scotland, where they’re ahead of the game—in making sure that we are not insular but looking out to the world and able to compete on the global stage?