Thank you for, Lynne, for chairing what I thought was one of the most enjoyable inquiries we've had with the Children, Young People and Education Committee—in the time I've been there, anyway—not least because it gave us the chance to collect evidence directly from young people with experience, past and present, of course the bac has been around for a while in different versions, and its component parts as well. 

Members, of course, will know that on the basis of the evidence presented to the committee, the Welsh Conservatives have announced their policy of dropping the bac, but the report, of course, itself does not recommend that. On the basis that the Government will be in power for a year or two yet, I still expect them to take action—urgent action in some cases—on the back of the committee's live recommendations.

Every other element of the qualification should surely already be mainstreamed into the existing curriculum and qualifications by now, but I did have great hopes, actually, with the skills challenge certificate in its most recent iteration, particularly the community challenge side of this. The skills challenge aims to develop literacy, numeracy and digital skills, but also critical thinking, problem solving, planning and organisation skills, creativity and innovation, and personal effectiveness. And actually, who's not going to want that for our young people? I'd say these skills are essential for personal empowerment, resilient communities, effective leadership in work and public life, and any hope for the Welsh economy as well, if I can add that. But they're also pretty much the same aims as for the new curriculum and that's why we as Welsh Conservatives don't think we need both. And I draw Members' attention in particular to recommendation 10, which says, in essence, learn from the mistakes of the bac and get the new curriculum right. 

A quick look at the recommendations gives a flavour of the ongoing problems—we've heard some from Lynne already: the need for a statement of Welsh Government vision for the bac; guidance about expectation on delivering resources—I'm pleased to see movement on that; an awareness-raising campaign to increase understanding; clarity on whether it's compulsory; clarity on whether post-16 students are choosing to study where the bac's not compulsory; better understanding of the impact of the workload on learners' mental health and well-being; and better understanding of the effect of the bac on other options on the curriculum. This is a qualification that has been around for a while now, so that is a lot of concerns still to be raising about it. 

Only last week, I met students at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd who really valued the skills challenge. This is a school that is wholly committed to it and the ethos, actually, of the new curriculum is already being felt and implemented throughout that school. But it wasn't a consistent experience across Wales. We took compelling evidence from learners across Wales—now, we accept that parents' attitudes may inevitably colour their children's views—but these were actually tested separately in work that we did as well. When young people were surveyed, over half of those studying the foundation level skills challenge thought it was less useful than other qualifications in preparing them for work and life. This is the purpose of the skills challenge. Two thirds of them thought it was more time consuming, even though the majority thought it was no more or less difficult than traditional study. 

The same is true of the national-level skills challenge certificate, although in this case, 70 per cent of students thought it was too time consuming. That post-16 students felt the same was enough to convince me, especially as a third of them said that they thought that it was less difficult than A-levels, despite it being more time consuming—two thirds of them thought that. And that should concern us, I think, because the bac is sold to universities as an A-level equivalent, but if it's being used by some universities as a reason to lower other entry grades, alongside other schemes offering candidates lower grades if they prioritise that particular university for their UCAS applications, we need to have a think about that, because lowering entry requirements is a bad sign for the higher education sector more generally. And citing the bac as a driver of that does actually worry me, rather than give me confidence in its robustness—