Thank you to Siân Gwenllian for her comments and questions. Presiding Officer, I'm not running away or hiding from the challenges that face us as we move into the implementation phase. As Suzy Davies alluded to, if we were defensive about what the OECD had to say about us, we would have delayed bringing the report for scrutiny by Senedd Members. We welcome the steer that the OECD is giving us to ensure that implementation is successful.

I think there were a number of substantive questions that Siân Gwenllian was asking. Firstly, around the timetable, as I said in answer to Suzy Davies, at this stage, we believe that it is still possible to move to an implementation date of 2022, but, as welcomed in the OECD report, they have praised us for establishing a system of co-construction in Wales around education. This Government doesn't do things to teachers; it does things alongside teachers. And that will continue to guide us as we look to drive forward implementation.

Clearly, she asked the question, 'Are you continually assessing the impact of COVID?' Believe me, every day we assess the impact that COVID-19 is having on our education system and we will continue to do that.

With regard to equity, as I said in my statement, the curriculum will be for nothing if we don't ensure that every child in Wales, no matter where they are, no matter the nature of their schooling, the medium in which they receive their schooling—it'll be for nothing unless every child is given an equal opportunity to pursue and to reach their full aspirations. What that does mean is that some schools will need more additional support than others. Some schools will, perhaps, be further along their curriculum reform journey. Some schools will perhaps have greater levels of curriculum design and expertise within their schools than others. And that's why it's really important, in our expectations document, that we're very clear about whose job it is and whose responsibility it is to provide that additional resource to schools, recognising that our local education authorities and our school improvement service, and, indeed, Estyn, all have specific jobs to do in ensuring that all schools are ready, and recognising that some schools will need more help than others in doing that. How that will work in practice is one of the aims of the expectations document.

With regard to 14 to 16, I share the OECD's concerns that, in recent times in education—this is not something that is peculiar to the Welsh system—assessment for learning has too often been caught up with system accountability. And that has led to unintended consequences, whereby accountability measures have often driven sets of behaviours in schools that, perhaps, as I said, have had unintended consequences, whether that be preventing children from reaching their full potential by the nature of the qualifications they were entered for or narrowing the curriculum with a relentless focus on the core, to the exclusion of some of the creativity and some of the other subjects that children really value and relish and enjoy studying. So, first of all, we need to get back to a system where we recognise assessment for learning and how that teacher assessment can drive children on in their learning journeys. And that is different from accountability. We can't have an accountability-free zone; I'm accountable, every single Member sitting in the Senedd is accountable. These are concepts that are not unfamiliar to any of us. We need to have accountability in our system, but that's not to confuse it with assessment for learning.

Siân Gwenllian says we need a Welsh qualification for a Welsh curriculum. Well, I would argue that we do indeed have Welsh qualifications at the current time. Some of them are completely unique to Wales, such as our Welsh baccalaureate or our maths numeracy GCSE, and, indeed, the way in which we have retained our AS levels, where we still have elements of coursework in our GCSEs, and children still do oral tests in Welsh first language, Welsh second language and English—all things that have disappeared in other parts of the United Kingdom. 

And, clearly, Qualifications Wales's review into the future of qualifications, which has been necessitated by our curriculum reform, is important. I would remind the Member that in the first stage of their consultation, there was strong support expressed for keeping GCSEs. It's a brand that is well understood by pupils, by parents, by schools, by businesses and by higher education establishments. And I would remind Siân Gwenllian how many times I've answered questions in the Chamber, where people have raised concerns about the acknowledgement of Welsh qualifications, sometimes by universities across our border, and the fact that Qualifications Wales has had to employ an additional member of staff that does that work with higher education institutions elsewhere, so that Welsh students are not disadvantaged. 

What's crucial to me goes beyond simply the name of a qualification. What's crucial to me is that a qualification has currency, that it allows Welsh children to fulfil their ambitions, whether that is moving to further education colleges, moving to an apprenticeship, into the world of work, across our borders perhaps to study at institutions elsewhere in the United Kingdom, indeed elsewhere in the world. Nobody in Wales will thank us for creating a qualification system that, in some way, diminishes that currency. And I think that's what we have to focus on. 

But I would agree with the Member that whatever those qualifications look like, they should not dictate the content of the curriculum. It is the content of the curriculum that should dictate the qualification, and it is sometimes—and I think this is one of the discussions we will have to continue to have with the system—it is sometimes concerning to me, that question about, 'Just tell me what's going to be in the spec for the exam and then I'll design the curriculum.' We need to design our curriculum first, and then understand how we will assess it. Thank you.