What I would like to see is a commission for education, because, with the best will in the world, you’re not going to solve the problems of the education system over the next five years. So, what you need to do is sit down with people from every political party, teachers from all over Wales, all different sectors, and discuss what people want and where we want to go. In terms of being a teacher, it’s very simple, really: good buildings, resources and letting teachers teach. What we could have is a system of mentorship instead of punitive inspection. We need greater investment in special educational needs. Music, drama and physical education, they shouldn’t be cut, they should be invested in.

I think we should be radical as well, in terms of cutting class sizes, because I’m actually a fan of cutting class sizes. What we should be looking at is not one or two; if we want real results, we should be looking at cutting class sizes to 20 or 15, like they have in Finland.

Just one other thing in terms of education generally. If you look at the criminal youth system, one thing that magistrates and judges cannot do is give extra time for tuition. If you look at prisons, there are huge issues there as well with literacy. It all comes down to the bottom line of schools having actually failed people. If you look at 20 per cent of the people who are unable to read properly, unable to describe themselves properly in writing and say what they want, you know, it’s a real, real scandal.

In finishing, I also want to flag up very briefly the scandal of supply teachers being paid poverty pay, while you have agencies like New Directions creaming off a massive percentage. What that actually does is take away millions and millions of pounds out of the educational system that should be invested in our children and in our schools. Diolch yn fawr, thank you.