Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for having this debate in the Chamber today? Indeed, I fully support the amendment that has been tabled by the Plaid Cymru group.

I always get concerned when I pick up an annual Estyn report and see a refrain of things that have been said in the past, because it suggests that insufficient progress is being made, and I know that that's a concern of the Cabinet Secretary and others in this Chamber. We must remind ourselves that, yes, we've had some improvements, but we must never forget the failures, really, of successive Labour Governments, in recent years, to get to grips with the problems in our education system across Wales.

We know that our PISA results, back in 2016, were worse than they were a decade before. We know that last year, we saw our worst GSCE results for a decade. We know that this Estyn report suggests that, when you compare the numbers in there, there were 160 fewer primary schools in Wales than there were back in January 2011—160 schools have closed, many of those were decent schools with very good standards. Now, of course, some schools, quite rightly, had to close because they were not meeting the needs of the local communities, but I've got some concerns about that. I'm also concerned that if we look at the schools that are in special measures in Wales, it would appear that the inspectorate, the regional consortia and local education authorities are failing to get those schools turned around quickly enough. We've got two schools, for example, in special measures in Wales at the moment—one of which is in the Cabinet Secretary's constituency—that have been in special measures since 2014. That's a long time for children to be in schools that are not performing satisfactorily. That's unacceptable. So, there's clearly a significant challenge that we have in Wales in getting to grips with these problems.

I know, Cabinet Secretary, that you have a review of Estyn, as an inspectorate, which is under way at the moment, and I'd be grateful if you could provide us an update on where that review is at, and when you expect to receive some recommendations from that review, so that we can make sure that Estyn is fit for purpose. I'm grateful to Estyn for the work that it does, I'm grateful for the interventions that it necessarily makes in our schools, but I do think that some of these issues, frankly, ought to have been dealt with by now with the support of Estyn. And, of course, as I say, I'm grateful that there is some progress being made in some areas, but it's not nearly rapid enough. It's not nearly rapid enough for those youngsters who are in our education system at the moment.

Now, part of that is, of course, as Llyr Huws Gruffydd quite rightly said, as a result of funding. We know that, for every £1 spent on the education system in England, £1.20 comes to Wales so that we have the opportunity to spend more on our children here. And yet, in spite of that, according to the unions, there's a spending gap of £678 per learner in Wales versus the investment that's made over the border in England. I think that that's partly why we've got such poor results here, frankly, in terms of the outcomes for our children. It's not good enough and we need to understand why education isn't getting the sort of priority from the Welsh Government that it needs to be getting in terms of the Welsh Government's cake being carved up when it comes to budgets.

I know that the Cabinet Secretary, just in this last week, has made an additional £14 million available to our schools, and that's a very welcome move, particularly given the £15 million cuts that are going to be made as a result of the change in the education improvement grants. But, again, I think, even with that, we still have this very wide gap per learner with England, and I think we need an explanation from the Government as to why that is the case.

Llyr Huws Griffiths has already made reference to a number of the points that I wanted to cover, but one of the startling ones, I think, that we need a great deal more focus on is adult learning and the further education sector. Now this, I think, is the one part of the education system in Wales that is leading the way, if you like, in terms of the quality of its leadership, in terms of the outcomes that it has for our learners, and I wonder, Cabinet Secretary, when you will harness the opportunity that there is to work with the FE sector to bring improvements and to drive improvements in our schools. We know that we have an industrial strategy here in Wales. That needs to be complemented by some of the work that goes on in our FE sector, and particularly when it comes to adult learning, I think we need to make sure that we are tracking people through the system to see how many youngsters are going through FE and getting into employment. This is information that isn't routinely collected by the Welsh Government, and, of course, Estyn have mentioned this in their report. I think it is something that we would like to see you reflecting on in the future.

When it comes to initial teacher education and training, perhaps you can give us an update on where things are at with the accreditation of the new courses, as well, in our universities. I know that this is something that the Education Workforce Council has been looking at at the moment, and, very clearly, we need to turn around the reputation of our initial teacher training in Wales. I wonder if you could tell us how confident you are that the new courses that are being accredited are going to help get us out of this problem that we've got with recruitment, because we're not able to attract the people into the profession that we need to in the future.