6. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Teaching the History of Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 19 June 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:02, 19 June 2019

I'm really—. In six minutes, there's no way I'm going to be able to give everybody good justice in this one. But I'm really pleased that this was accepted for debate today. I can't think of the last time I enjoyed a debate as much, as well as actually learning from it. I suppose the question should be why we're having it at all, and, actually, it struck me, having followed some of the Twitter coverage of what we've been doing today, that one commentator said, 'It's unbelievable that we're debating whether Welsh history—or how it—should be taught in our schools. Without self-awareness, we are stateless and rootless and ignorant of our own country, how it has been shaped, the significance and the contributions the people from Wales have made, and we will be left with the impression of irrelevance and nothingness.'

Now, I think that might possibly be overstating it—yma o hyd and all the rest of it; we are still here—but there are some serious questions about why we are where we are, and I suppose it is worth just reminding the Chamber here that this actually goes back to—1952 we were talking about this, and the Ministry of Education then, way back in pre-devolved times, had already noted that the history of Wales is relegated to the background in what was being taught then. By the time it got to the Education Reform Act 1988—this is some time on—there was still an understanding that, in Wales, we needed a distinctly Welsh curriculum for schools. So, you can imagine, by the time we got to 1995, and we're just before devolution now—both the English and Welsh language cultures in the country need to be exhibited in the curriculum as it was taught then, and the feeling was that it wasn't being. And then, by 2013, which is well after devolution and well into the new curriculum then, we found ourselves in a position where—unfortunately, Vikki, you may be the paragon in this, because only 10 per cent to 15 per cent of history GCSEs had content in them about Wales, and I really wish that the rest of Wales, and the children in the rest of Wales, had the experience that your children have had. [Interruption.] If you give me extra time. Thank you.