3. Will the Minister make a statement on the advice given to teachers about coronavirus? OAQ55254

7. Will the Minister make a statement on the latest guidance for schools in South Wales Central in light of the coronavirus outbreak? OAQ55248

Presiding Officer, I understand that you have given your permission for question 3 and 7 to be grouped.

The Welsh Government and Public Health Wales have issued guidance to schools over education and other educational settings on the coronavirus, and the Member will be aware of my statement that I issued at 1 o'clock this afternoon.

Thank you. And, again I'd like to put on record my thanks to everybody involved with the schools and teachers. As you quite rightly point out, it's a very anxious time for everyone.

In the short time—. My questions were completely different but as things are changing by the minute and by the hour, already I've been asked—. Some teachers are expressing concerns regarding coursework deadlines, because these, of course, were intended to be in by Easter, and some pupils have 30 per cent of work left to complete, particularly so concerns around exam group years 11 and 13, so what are your instructions and guidance there? Will the WJEC and the Joint Council for Qualifications be putting a statement out at all? And another concern is online teaching—some now, with learning from home, believe that a lot of this will be carried out online. Well, as you're aware, in many rural communities they just don't have the broadband facilities, so what measures will you take to ensure that there is some kind of parity of expectation in terms of where—? Certainly my own constituents, some of them their broadband is—well, they haven't got superfast broadband, so there will be complications there. Thank you. 

Can I sympathise with the Member? She's absolutely right when she says that this is a fast-moving situation—actually, minutes feel long at the moment, let alone hours and days, so I sympathise with the Member. She is right, issues around assessment—formal assessments and examinations will be at the forefront of our secondary school practitioners, which is why, as I said in answer to your colleague Suzy Davies, I will be looking to make an announcement as soon as possible following my meeting with Qualifications Wales and the WJEC this morning.

With regard to online learning, she's absolutely right. Actually, this Government's investment in Hwb and the development of the Hwb has put us at the absolute forefront of our ability to deliver online learning, as is the fact that every single child in Wales, via Hwb, has access to Microsoft Office and such software, as do all our teaching professionals. So, they can access that—they can use that software free of charge from home. But she is right, we do have to be mindful of equity in this situation, although I hope that she will agree with me that we're not going to get it perfect because we are dealing with such extraordinary circumstances. But she will be aware that we've been working closely with schools in the run-up to this decision, and schools where I know—where they know—that internet access could be problematic for their children have produced home learning packs in hard copy and are sending those home with children. So, those teachers who know that this could be an issue have already been anticipating and looking at different ways in which they can support children's education going forward. 

I appreciate the answers you've given to date, Minister, and it is a very fast-moving situation. One of the questions that would have been asked many times today would have been about the opening of schools. You've already answered that question with your announcement before question time. I appreciate you've given timelines to, say, in the near future, and I'm not looking for a day, I'm not looking for a week, because I appreciate that's difficult at this time, but are we likely to get any more information around examinations by the end of the week or should we expect next week to get more information on that? Because I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption that many constituents are going to come to us—as I said, not looking for exact days, hours or minutes when the statement might come, but I think if we can give broad narratives of when this information might be available, that would be at least helpful at this stage. So, should we anticipate more information next week or might we get something by the end of the week?

Andrew, I appreciate how challenging the announcements on bringing forward the Easter recess will be to students, to teachers and parents, and I say that as a parent of a child that is in year 13 and is in year 11. So, I know how crucial and anxious children are. I would be very disappointed if we cannot make a further decision before the end of this week, because we will need to operationalise the processes around that decision.

Question 4 [OAQ55262] has been withdrawn. Therefore, question 5, Hefin David.