Before I move on to the issues in relation to the motion, can I put on record my thanks to the staff of our education system, who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and the lockdown, and particularly our teachers? They faced difficult challenges at that point in time and they stepped up to the plate and actually delivered for our young people and ensured that learning could take place. I think this also reflects the fact that, in Wales, we have an education system that actually had a digital identity, and, with the Hwb system in place, pupils were able to develop their skills at home, through the support of the teachers who were working in the classrooms. I praise them for all the work they've done and the work they've done since.

I also want to talk about the motion now, and I think I agree with Suzy Davies: this motion is so wide, it actually doesn't do justice to the various components within it. We can only focus upon one element, usually, in a motion and there are so many elements in that motion, I think there's too big a scope to actually have a single issue on.

But I want to focus on the examination system. I agree with Members who have indicated the challenges that young people faced in the summer and the difficulties they had when they were awaiting the results, because they weren't clear as to whether that algorithm would work or not, and when the results came out, what happened beyond that, and we mustn't let that happen again. That was something that we should learn lessons from and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Now, where we do have an advantage is that the majority of individuals who were facing examinations in that summer had completed their courses, mostly, by the time the lockdown came, so their knowledge and their understanding of the subject material had been completed—near enough. Maybe some hadn't got that far yet. This year's situation is different because the students who are possibly facing examinations next summer are not in the same position. They would have lost some teaching in June and July that they would have had in the lower sixth or in year 10, and they're also having a slight disruption now. So, we know in advance that the material and the knowledge and the competencies and the skills are not going to be, possibly, to the level we would expect them to be by the time examinations would come in normal circumstances, and we have to reflect upon that.

Now the question that then comes is: are examinations the solution or are other mechanisms the solution? I have raised the question before of whether we should look at a moderated approach to teacher assessments. I'll take both options here, acting Presiding Officer. If we go down an examination route and the examinations have to be held—and we await the Minister's decision on this—then we must ensure that the examinations reflect the abilities and the knowledge that students have gained in that time. Because we might have a syllabus, but not every school will deliver that syllabus in the same order or the same manner, and therefore you cannot guarantee that a pupil will be at the same level of knowledge and understanding to answer questions in the examination next summer, the way we are at the moment. So, there's a very serious question: if we are having exams, what will those exams actually look like and what will they be assessing?

If we're going to go to a moderated assessment approach, then we must make the decision quickly because teachers and pupils need to understand how they will be assessed for their grades, and that's critical. I'm happy to give Plaid Cymru my experience of having done it. I've taught at all those levels: GCSE up to Master's degrees, at every level. I've also moderated and examined at levels along those lines as well. And it's different from teaching it, assessing it and moderating it, and the experiences need to be understood if we are going to do that. To put moderation in place, we need to be acting quickly, because teachers need to know how they've put things together, they need to have their methods of assessment, the assessment marking schemes, they need to have sample coursework, they need to be sent off to some examiners to be moderated. There's a whole process that has to be put in place, and that can't be done in the last few weeks of the year; it needs to be done sooner rather than later. So, I agree that if we are moving to teacher assessment, the sooner the better, so I'm looking forward to the announcement in the week starting 9 November to get that. I very much welcome the education Minister's commitment to give it that early.

But, I also reflect upon the comments from the Plaid Cymru spokesperson when she opened the debate, about where we go with assessments and where we go with examinations. I think it's very easy to make wide-ranging statements that we need to have a change, but that change takes time, and that change needs people to go with you. You need the pupils, society, businesses, the education system, universities and colleges to go with you on that change, and not just from our nation, but from all nations in the UK and nations across Europe, because everyone recognises those types of qualifications. If we want our young people to be able to work in the world beyond Wales, then we must ensure that the world beyond Wales recognises what we are assessing and the qualifications they will come out with. That is not a short-term picture; it's a long-term situation to be able to get that, and if you don't believe me, try looking at how the Welsh bac was accepted by universities in the last few years. I can tell you from when I was working in that sector that it had difficulty initially to get recognition, particularly from some of the top universities. We need to ensure that everyone comes with us. Grandiose statements, fine, but the reality is far more complicated and far more complex. So, if you are looking to ensure that our young people have a strong future, have a place where they can go anywhere in the world—