Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 6 February 2019.
I understand what you said about not wanting to impose on teachers a long list of items to teach—I understand where you're coming from there, Minister—but FGM is such a horrific abuse of a girl. It's now being undertaken on babies, because, and I quote,
'The girls are unable to report, the cut heals quicker and prosecution is much harder once evidence comes to light and the girl is older.'
That's the end of the quote. So, simply telling girls in school that they should report anyone trying to do it isn't going to work. Increasingly FGM is happening here in Wales, in the UK, so just keeping a note of those girls who are likely to go on holiday and have it done abroad—they might have had it done to them as babies. The whole point is, I would suggest, to educate the next generation of citizens in this country, every single one of them, in SRE, that female genital mutilation is horrific and it cannot be tolerated. Do it right at the word go. Get rid of that acceptance of it in a small part of our community. The charity Barnardo's says that community engagement is key to ending the crime of FGM. So, will you help solve this problem through educating future generations that FGM exists and can't be tolerated?