8. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh dimension within the new curriculum? OAQ53364

Thank you, Llyr. Developing an understanding of the culture and history of Wales and its place in the wider world is an essential component of a young person’s learning journey across all the areas of learning and experience throughout their education. And I can assure you, this is not a tokenistic bolt-on to the curriculum; it is an essential.

Thank you for your response. In responses to other Members, you have made it clear that, certainly, you don't want to provide a long list of subjects and areas that should be taught, and I understand the sentiment and agree to a large extent with that, but what I'm struggling with is how then are you going to strike the balance in ensuring that teachers have the flexibility to teach what they think is suitable in the context of the areas of learning and experience while at the same time, of course, ensuring that pupils in Wales are learning those aspects that they need to know about, whether in the context of Welsh history or Welsh literature or any aspect of the Welsh dimension. You mentioned some specific scaffolding, earlier. Does that suggest that there will be a shortlist and not a long list? Could you expand on this?

Thank you very much, Llyr. Can I just provide you with some assurance that the humanities AoLE working group in particular has taken full account of the Cwricwlwm Cymreig report, as well as a range of experts, including Elin Jones, who has been very helpful in making sure that we get this right to ensure that both Wales and history and the Welsh dimension are reflected appropriately across the curriculum. What's important is that there will be, when we publish the areas of learning and experience and the statutory guidance—that will provide the scaffolding for individual school teachers, and it will be really important that there is guidance given at that stage about the necessity of having the Welsh dimension across all the AoLEs with, potentially, some practical examples of how that can happen.

Of course, what's really important with the curriculum as well is that this is about learning and experiences, and therefore, we would be expecting lots of Wales's bodies, such as Cadw and the national museum, to continue to help provide teachers with resources and the opportunity for Wales's children and young people, not just to sit in their classroom and experience the Welsh dimension but actually to be out and about and experiencing that in a very real way. But, again, that can't just be about history; that has to be about language, communication, culture, music, science. It cannot simply be the preserve of the humanities AoLE, otherwise, we will have missed this really important opportunity.

And finally, Suzy Davies.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Minister, in questions following your statement on the education White Paper last week, you observed that, and I quote:

'the focus tends to go onto qualifications'.

And, hopefully, your announcement on a single Welsh language curriculum will actually lead, in time, to better exam-based Welsh language attainment as well, but to the increasing use in all settings of the Welsh language as a means of communication so that those non-examinable means are going to be just as important if the Welsh language isn't stuck behind a school desk. So, how do you plan to get this across to school leaders who are already juggling very limited resources and, like it or not, will be focusing on getting good exam results out of their children?

Well, of course, what's really important is that we will have a language continuum, which we will expect children to move along. What's really important is that that focus will be on using the language as a means of communication, not just something that you learn just to be able to write. And what we want to do is improve the linguistic ability of children in both languages to ensure that, when they leave school, as many of our young people as possible are completely bilingual and are able to use and enjoy the language both in the world of work and in society. 

It's also about understanding, in some communities, the importance of those linguistic skills and recognising that these are valuable skills to have in the world of work. And therefore, being able to be able to do your childcare bilingually, by being able to be a healthcare professional bilingually, by being able to offer services bilingually, actually, there's a real—not only a cultural benefit to being a bilingual person—but, actually, there are real economic benefits to being a bilingual person. I think it's one of the ways in which we need to make the case and support that with good-quality Welsh language teaching. And that is a feature of our reform programme to ensure the experience of young people, where the medium of tuition is English in their schools— that their learning of the language is a positive one, delivered by a well-motivated, skilled and confident staff.

Thank you to the Minister.