I’m grateful to the UKIP spokesman. He started his remarks talking about the land of song. Well, there are Members in this Chamber—Presiding Officer, you may be one yourself—who have actually heard me singing. The one thing I think that unites Members on all sides of the Chamber is that they don’t want to hear it again. I wouldn’t seek to inflict that on anyone.

I understand the points that have been made about increasing and stimulating demand for Welsh-medium education. I think all of us who have children who’ve been in or through the system recognise the benefits of that, and recognise the benefits of acquiring a language at an early age. Certainly, my seven-year-old son is now able to speak, write and use the Welsh language in a way that would have been unimaginable for me at that age. And as a consequence of that, it is something that he has now for the rest of his life, and I think that will be of great benefit for him, as it would be for all children of that age. I hope that as we move forward in this debate, we will be able to demonstrate both the—. I don’t like to use the words ‘advantage of bilingualism’, but certainly that bilingualism is something that has added to my life and is certainly I think something that adds to all our different lives, and enables us to not only appreciate the history and culture of our country but also the history and culture of other countries, other nations and other peoples as well.

I hesitate as well before I try to define the little ambition that has come from some local authorities, but I will say this in answer to the Member’s question: the conversations that Aled has led and which my officials have continued with all local authorities of all political complexions in all parts of the country have been overwhelmingly positive. It is about how we move forward and not whether we move forward. I think it’s a tribute to local authority leaders—as I said, of all political complexions from all parts of the country—that they are looking at this agenda in a positive way at a time when they’re dealing with some very difficult financial pressures. So, rather than emphasise little ambition or little enthusiasm, I would like to emphasise the positive ambition and the positive enthusiasm we have seen from local authorities.

The UKIP spokesperson asked me about categories, and I neglected to answer Llyr Gruffydd’s question on the same matter. The purpose of looking at categories is not to necessarily change or undermine the status of the language in schools as it exists today, but to understand what is actually happening in the classroom in different categories of schools, because we recognise that categories can be a perplexing and bewildering array of different balances of the language where they are used. I appreciate that quite a few parents might find them perplexing themselves. So, I want to understand what exactly is happening in all of those schools and whether there is a way in which we can move forward that moves away from that sort of sometimes overly complex structure. It is done without prejudice. It is done in a way to learn and to understand and to look at and learn from best practice. The purpose is not necessarily to undermine—it certainly isn’t to undermine the status of the language anywhere.

What I want to emphasise in that is that I’m anxious that we need to look as well at the English-medium sector, and the points made about the teaching of Welsh are well made and points that I accept. The Cabinet Secretary for Education has already made a number of statements on this matter and will continue to do so as we look towards moving along the continuum and introducing the new curriculum, but let me say this: the Welsh language is something that belongs to everybody, no matter what the medium of education is in the school that they attend. It is important to me that children who attend English-medium schools are able to leave that school with a working knowledge, at least a conversational knowledge, of the Welsh language. We know that is not the case at the moment, and what we need to be able to do is to understand why that isn’t the case and to ensure that, through the new curriculum that is being introduced by the Cabinet Secretary, we’re able to change people’s experience of learning Welsh in schools.

I know that time is moving on, Presiding Officer, but I have to say that the role of parents is essential. The role of the community is essential. School is always a part of the community, wherever that community may be located, and the role of the language of instruction in schools is important—it’s a reflection of that community—and I think that people right across the country are very, very positive about seeing more Welsh and allowing the language of instruction to enable parents and others to learn the language themselves. I hope that the national centre that was established two years ago for the teaching of Welsh will look at this and look at how we can help parents to have at least a working knowledge of the language at the different times that that’s needed during a child’s education.

The issues about the supply of teachers and others are matters that have been already raised by the Plaid Cymru spokesperson this afternoon, and this is a matter that I recognise as being a significant challenge facing us. When we do publish our plans for delivering on the 2050 strategy and the work that we’ll be completing during the current Assembly, we will be setting out how we intend to meet those objectives and meet those targets.