3. 3. Statement: 'Education in Wales: Our national mission — Action Plan 2017-21'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:39 pm on 26 September 2017.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 3:39, 26 September 2017

I’m really sorry, Deputy Presiding Officer, I’m not sure whether I got all of that. But what I will say is: Huw, you’re absolutely right. If we’re to have an equitable education system we need to ensure that children have equal chances, whether they are in English-medium, Welsh-medium, or bilingual provision. And, that’s, again, one of the reasons to make a decision about slowing the curriculum introduction down slightly, so that we can address the needs specifically in the Welsh-medium sector. There are a number of programmes in which we can do that. So, that’s alternative routes into teaching for more mature students. It’s developing maybe people who are working in a learning support capacity at the moment. It’s about increasing our secondment schemes, so people who have language capabilities can have a break from school to go and develop them further.

It’s even about innovative technological advances. So, officials have been up recently to look at the delivery of Gaelic education in the Outer Hebrides. My goodness me, if we think we’ve got challenges in rural Wales, go to the Outer Hebrides and look to see how you provide a bilingual education system in the Outer Hebrides. One of the ways in which they’ve supported Gaelic—[Interruption.] One of the ways in which they’ve supported Gaelic—[Interruption.] As I was just saying, my officials were there just over the summer. One of the ways they’ve supported that is by the e-school, and that has been absolutely fantastic in terms of attainment for those children. So, they’ve got university professors teaching science via Gaelic over an internet link. They’ve got a philosophy professor at a university teaching philosophy via Gaelic over a link. Actually, what this is doing is enabling more children and parents to make that positive choice about learning through Gaelic, and then that, in itself, drives then more demand to be able to demonstrate to people, ‘You have a real professional opportunity and a lifelong career should you move into this sector’. So, we’re actively looking at whether those technological solutions that are being used innovatively in other parts of the world—whether we can adopt some of that best practice here in Wales to address those situations.