Can I thank the Chair of the committee for opening the debate and summarising so well all of the themes within this report on such an important topic? The Chair's absolutely right: the success of our education system is down to the quality of the teachers that are in it, and I know that this is something that we all, across this Chamber, feel passionately about. 

I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed to read that so many of our recommendations had been only accepted in principle, and not just fully accepted. I think there's some ambiguity around many of the responses that have been given, which seem to sidestep, even though it says 'accept in principle', in many ways the recommendations that we have made.

But this is an important issue. We have to get to grips with making sure that we've got high-quality teachers, and we must also ensure, of course, that we bring new teachers into the profession who are ready to deliver on the ambitious programme that the Welsh Government has to transform our education system here in Wales. 

Just this morning, we've seen reports in the media about the ongoing funding crisis in our schools. We know that for every £1 that's spent on a school in England, Wales gets £1.20. For me, it seems unbelievable that we have this significant spending gap now per learner—around £700, according to the unions, per child, per year. That's a huge spending gap, and, of course, I think that that in part is leading to demoralisation of the teaching workforce. So, it came as no surprise to me, when we look at the latest figures, that we see that Wales is massively under-recruiting into teacher training places, and that, I believe, is one of the reasons behind that.

We also know that it's not just about recruiting new people in with the right skills, but of course we've got to train those people up who are already in the workforce, giving them ongoing professional development opportunities, and to retain those very good teachers who are thinking about leaving. We were alarmed during the course of the inquiry to see the national education workforce survey results, which suggested that a third of teachers are thinking about exiting the profession within the next three years. So, if you've got a shortage of new teachers coming into the profession, along with a third of teachers thinking about leaving the profession, you can see how a crisis is beginning to emerge—