Motion NDM7440 Siân Gwenllian

To propose that the Senedd:

Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) provide timely reassurance to pupils and teachers by making an immediate statement that examinations will not be held in Wales in summer 2021 and will instead be replaced by teacher assessment;

b) ensure young people have the skills they need for the future and are given a fair opportunity to demonstrate attainment of those skills through a reformed Welsh system of assessment and qualifications aligned to the new curriculum of Wales by scrapping outdated GCSE and A-Level examinations;

c) ensure that every pupil leaves the education system as bilingual citizens, by:

i) taking further steps to ensure the new curriculum facilitates fluency in Welsh as a norm by increasing Welsh medium education in every sector and learning phase; and

ii) committing to introducing a Deddf Addysg Gymraeg;

d) ensure every pupil has an understanding of Wales’s diverse heritage and identity by making the history of Wales, including black and people of colour history as an integral part of the history of Wales, a mandatory element in the Curriculum and Assessment Bill;

e) uphold the rights of all pupils in the Pontypridd area and elsewhere to a Welsh-medium education in their own community and within a reasonable distance to their homes by promoting widely the precedents arising from the administrative court’s judgement in Driver v. RCT County Borough Council in relation to the proper undertaking of Welsh language impact assessments in school reorganisation proposals;

f) prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of our students by ensuring the mental health and wellbeing areas of learning and expertise are given due attention in the Curriculum and Assessment Bill, and monitor medium and long-term trends in mental health provision in schools;

g) urgently, support further education students learning from home by ensuring they have access to adequate broadband provision and equipment, and urgently assess the need to safely reopen public workspaces for students who cannot work at home;

h) prevent apprentices from slipping into poverty by guaranteeing full wage protections during workplace closures, and provide additional support/guidance if they are made redundant;

i) uphold the legal rights of students by ensuring they are treated equally to the rest of the public with regards to COVID-19 restrictions, including a guarantee that students can return home before the Christmas period with appropriate testing safeguards in place.