Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:10 pm on 14 December 2016.
I’m sorry if you might not have been listening, but literally 10 seconds ago I made that very point, I did, and really it couldn’t have gone much lower, so if that’s what the Labour Party are celebrating about their strategy for education then poor you, because, as I did say in my remarks, we are still behind in maths where we were in 2006.
So, I go back to the gambit that I put down in my opening remarks: this Government is at the start of its mandate. There is now definitely a new test coming in 2018, a new PISA set of tests, that will be taken by pupils across the length and breadth of Wales. Surely we will get some clarity over how the Government expect Welsh education to perform and the goals that the Cabinet Secretary will set for Welsh education.
I do have to say—. And I regret that Llyr didn’t take the intervention because he talked about—you know, you don’t change the team, you don’t actually move the stadium: you sack the manager. Well, I have to tell you, Llyr, you’ve been keeping the manager in place here, you have. You keep voting time and time again to keep the manager in place.
And it was—we celebrated, or commiserated, depending which way you want to look at it—the First Minister’s seventh anniversary, last Saturday, in office. Rightly, he pointed to education being a critical component about driving Wales forward and empowering communities the length and breadth of Wales. He used the words ‘the key to success’. He hasn’t even got the key, let alone knowing where to put the key in the door on this one, because the performance, time and—good God, I’ve got them all up—time and time again—[Laughter.] I’ll take Rhianon, if I may, then, because you’ve had a chance—.