The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 in the name of Darren Millar. In accordance with Standing Order 12.23(iii), amendment 10 tabled to the motion has not been selected.

We move to item 8: the Plaid Cymru debate on the future of education. I call on Siân Gwenllian to move the motion.

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through a reformed Welsh system of assessment and qualifications aligned to the new curriculum of Wales by scrapping outdated GCSE and A-Level examinations;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.

Motion moved.

Thank you very much. Our motion this afternoon focuses on important and timely aspects of the world of education in Wales. First of all, exams and assessments and the need for change that has been underlined by COVID and the requirements of the new curriculum, and I will expand on that in my contribution. Another important aspect is the identity and diversity of Wales. Including the history of Wales, including the history of the Welsh language, is vital for pupils the length and breadth of Wales so that they have an awareness of the national identity of Wales and the historic basis of our modern society. Even though some important aspects are mandatory elements of the new curriculum, for example relationships and sexuality education, there are some parts and groups in our society that have been forgotten. Black communities and communities of people of colour deserve status and respect in the new curriculum, and also the role of those communities in the history of modern Wales. So, we support the inclusion of people of colour and black history being part of the statutory part of the curriculum to strengthen the teaching of the identity of Wales and all of its diversity and to eradicate racism.

We will talk about apprenticeships and further education this afternoon—the need to support apprentices who are impacted in terms of employment and in terms of finance as a result of COVID-19. We will discuss the emotional and mental well-being of our young people and we will discuss the Welsh language, and the need to take further steps to ensure that the new curriculum facilitates fluency in the Welsh language as a norm by increasing Welsh-medium education in every sector and period of learning. Swansea and Rhondda Cynon Taf have the same contribution and responsibility in the national effort as does Gwynedd and Ceredigion.

I want to turn to examinations. The examinations fiasco this summer is still very much alive in the minds of our young people. They remember that it had taken a major effort—and we in Plaid Cymru were at the heart of that effort—to get rid of the algorithm system that was going to be hugely unfair to very many young people. After deciding, entirely rightly, to cancel the examinations, there was an unnecessary step taken to use a failing mathematical formula. In the end, the Minister for Education in Wales changed her mind after a period of campaigning and the teacher assessments were used. Faith was placed in the teachers, the professionals who know our young people best, but that could have been done from the very beginning, avoiding the entire fiasco and all of the concern and anxiety caused to our young people.

Plaid Cymru has been saying since the summer that A-level examinations and GCSE examinations shouldn't be held next year either. We said that because the experts told us that there would be a second wave of the coronavirus in the autumn. We were of the opinion that making a swift decision, before the schools reopened, even, in September, would be a fair way of moving forward, and that our young people and their teachers and parents would know what to expect and what would happen, with plenty of time to change direction and to change arrangements. Teacher assessments could be used, and there would be plenty of time for a sensible approach in terms of standardisation. It's not too late to do that, and we are continuing to press for the cancellation of the examinations next year, and there is increasing pressure coming from all corners for that by now. We hope that there will be a decision made on 9 November, which is the date mentioned or mooted for the decision to be announced. I very much hope that the Minister for Education won't follow England slavishly again, and that we will have the right decision for the people of Wales.

As the virus spreads and as the situation intensifies, pupils are missing school because they're self-isolating, and it impacts on their education and the continuity. Exam-age pupils are going to lose more of their education during the firebreak, on top of the education lost during the full lockdown. Some young people are going to lose more than one period of education, with these periods taking place at different times in different schools and different colleges, with different young people losing out on different pieces of work. And yet, everyone sitting the same exam.

Doing the work remotely isn't possible for many. There are many who still don't have an electronic device, who don't have broadband connectivity and they don't have the space and the quiet in their homes to do the work, which often means that it's those children from the poorer backgrounds who lose out and who are left behind, and that isn't fair.

There is an alternative method of assessing progression, which would include continuous assessment and teacher assessments. It's not as if there is no alternative but exams; there is an alternative and the sooner the better to decide on that alternative. We need to get rid of the uncertainty and give fair play to everyone.

And in the longer term, we need to get rid of the Government obsession with examinations. We need to create a system that identifies the individual's progression. The entire education system needs to shift from the emphasis on examinations and certificates, and ensure that our young people have the right skills for the world of work and for life in future.

The Curriculum for Wales does provide some of the answer, but the whole system needs to be changed. This includes rethinking qualifications and assessments, starting with a meaningful discussion about GCSEs. Do we need a qualification at all for young people of the age of 16, when the vast majority of them remain in education? We need to move from one exam, which is the same for everyone and gives a grade on a basis that doesn't measure the right skills. The Curriculum for Wales has the ability, if rooted correctly, to move the emphasis on to skills. The way that we assess has to be aligned to the new curriculum or it won't work, and schools will continue to focus on the grades, rather than the progress made by the individual.

We have a genuine opportunity to create an excellent educational system in Wales, one that doesn't leave any child or young person behind. The curriculum does provide an opportunity for us to start on that journey. We need to scrutinise the Bill in detail over the next few months, ensuring that the curriculum will genuinely be fit for purpose in the modern Wales. And it needs to be supported with resources and meaningful training, and assessment methods need to change too.

Our children and young people are our future; they are the future of our nation. They're not having an easy time of it at the moment, but there will be better times ahead. We, in the Senedd, need to give all support to them in this COVID period, but also by ensuring that the seeds that we are sowing now to revolutionise our education system—that those seeds grow into robust plants and grow in the right direction. I look forward to hearing everybody's contributions in this important debate.

Nine amendments have been selected to the motion. And I call on Suzy Davies to move amendments 1 to 9, tabled in the name of Darren Millar.

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

Delete sub-points (a) and (b) and replace with:

'take all steps to ensure that pupils in Wales have the opportunity to sit general and vocational exams this school year, including if the school year is extended;

set a date by which a decision must be made on whether exams will go ahead, with such dates allowing for a credible and robust system of externally moderated centre assessment grades to be implemented instead;'

Amendment 2—Darren Millar

Delete sub-point (c)(i) and replace with:

'introducing a Welsh language continuum code to assist practitioners to deliver the aim of improving fluency through the curriculum;'

Amendment 3—Darren Millar

Insert as new sub-point (c)(ii) and renumber accordingly:

'abiding by the judgment in Driver v. RCT County Borough Council;

Amendment 4—Darren Millar

Insert as new sub-point after point (c) and renumber accordingly:

'ensure young people have the skills they need for the future and are given a fair opportunity to demonstrate attainment of those skills through an improved system of assessment and general qualifications aligned to the new curriculum of Wales and via access to courses leading to recognised vocational qualifications;'

Amendment 5—Darren Millar

Delete sub-point (e) and renumber accordingly.

Amendment 6—Darren Millar

Insert as new sub-point after sub-point (g) and renumber accordingly:

'better reflect the recommendations of the Mind Over Matter report and the observations of the Children’s Commissioner in delivery of the curriculum, and monitor outcomes;'

Amendment 7—Darren Millar

Delete sub-point (h) and renumber accordingly.

Amendment 8—Darren Millar

Add as new points at end of motion:

Recognises the disruption caused to pupils’ education by the Welsh Government's response to COVID-19.

Recognises the commitment and flexibility of all staff delivering education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

Amendment 9—Darren Millar

Insert as new sub-point at end of motion:

'make an urgent statement on the support provided to apprentices and trainees.'

Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I apologise for so many amendments? But thank you for selecting them. But, of course, we wanted to show respect to the original motion, which had a lot of information in it. Perhaps less a portmanteau motion and more of a packing trunk, which is going to take rather a number of burly stevedores to lift it off the ground, so I hope we've all been eating our spinach to get through this one.

Siân, we really do share some of your concerns about the future of education, and that's why we look forward to the new curriculum and some of the other Government reforms, with hope, but no little trepidation. But there is a difference, I think, between much-needed innovation, and recklessness. The emergency action taken as a result of the tumultuous summer that we've had shouldn't have any status as proof of the worth of an exam-free way forward. We've gritted our teeth and accepted that the continuing disruption to pupils' education may well warrant a narrowing of the syllabus, but that is precisely to allow for exams to proceed without diminishing their robustness. However, we also recognise that the Welsh Government response to COVID could introduce a tipping point, beyond which preparing for exams in a way that is fair to everyone could become impossible.

And so I regret that secondary schools are not fully open during this national lockdown. Every single council leader wanted them open, as we heard earlier, and the decision potentially brings that tipping point a little nearer, at the same time as taking no account of the other cumulative effects of prolonged school absence. On October 15, just 83.7 per cent of pupils were attending school; this is the result, in part, of these huge school groups being sent home—that has to stop. We already know that Welsh children received less tuition during lockdown than children elsewhere in the UK, and we've all heard the voices of families, and you'll have heard the voice of the Children's Commissioner for Wales. So, I really hope this tipping point doesn't actually come, but should Welsh schools need to switch to a plan B, the judgment as to when to do that should be based on testimony from teachers and young people, not just Qualifications Wales, but made in that time frame referred to in the amendment. 

Schools like businesses need certainty; that's my point on this. But certainty is not the same as throwing in the towel as the SNP has done by scrapping exams. We are very interested in bringing exams up to date and able to capture the best from our young people, by recognising that we don't all learn in the same way, and that's what our amendment 4 is about, and you'll notice that it makes specific reference to vocational courses and qualifications. Because Qualifications Wales may well be working on new versions of these, made in Wales, but the new curriculum—the outset is about flexibility to match aptitude, and so pupils will need a right to access courses outside school and try for recognised qualifications, which may not have been made in Wales, at least in this medium term. And they should have that right until they're 18.

I think you're right, Plaid, to raise the issue of apprenticeships, but I think this one deserves a debate on its own, to be honest, and a detailed response from the economy Minister, hence our amendment to this motion on that. But we have no intention of putting Welsh pupils at a disadvantage as compared to their peers elsewhere, and that does include England. We need to overcome the disadvantage, which is already there, by raising standards, before we quarrel about how to prove that those standards have been raised. 

Moving on, I wonder if I could just invite Members to accept our amendment on the Driver case, on the grounds of sheer simplicity? Things have moved on since the deselection of amendment 10, but could I also invite you to consider the view of the Welsh Language Commissioner that, if we are to have young people leaving school proficient in at least two languages, the teaching workforce needs to be equipped to deliver this? And we know that we are struggling to get teachers who can teach Welsh and teach through the medium of Welsh, and however well these skills become embedded in teachers' training in the future, it's the current workforce that will be delivering the new curriculum. Many are going to need maximum support to do this with confidence, and any targets and any new Deddf addysg will be any empty aspiration if our teachers don't have the means of complying. A supportive continuum needs to accompany the curriculum to help anxious teachers get started on this, before they become more anxious about a Bill that is inevitably going to be more about the stick than the carrot.

Finally, Dirprwy Lywydd, well done Minister for making some modest progress on 'Mind over matter' recommendations. Health certainly needs to pick up pace on this as well, and I'm hoping that that will be reflected in the decision today. Members will know that we support other points in the motion, but I think considerable support for a higher profile for mental health in the education system as we move forward is pretty essential, not in the curriculum, and for teachers and educators as well as those who are being educated. Thank you. 

Amendment 10, tabled in the name of Siân Gwenllian, was not selected, in accordance with Standing Order 12.23. Delyth Jewell.

Diolch, Lywydd dros dro. I think we're all liable to forget how difficult it can be to be a young person. There are so many pressures that society places on the young—yes exams, but also stresses and expectations about what they should look like, body image ideals permeated by adverts and Instagram, bullying, and pressure to get the right career placement or make the right decision on their Universities and Colleges Admissions Service form.

Growing up in our society is hard enough as it is, but this year, away from their friends and a normal school routine, our young people will have faced unprecedented strain and loneliness. Over the summer, 17 and 18-year-olds went through needless anxiety when they were told that an algorithm would be the best way of determining their future, even though that algorithm punished people for living in poor areas—an algorithm that placed a ceiling over their heads.

I was glad that the Welsh Government u-turned on that disastrous decision, and that young people were given their futures back. But we have to learn a lesson from what happened. That mistake cannot be repeated, and that is why our motion today is calling for a guarantee that examinations will not be held next year and will be replaced by a robust teacher assessment process. This is vital for the next few months.

But, as Plaid's shadow Minister for the future, I think that we need to assess what we want our children to get out of school. As the future generations commissioner has pointed out, skills like creativity, problem-solving and emotional intelligence will be even more important in the future because we'll likely have to work longer and adapt skill sets more rapidly. We need to find better ways of nurturing these skills that are transferrable instead of just awarding static finite marks on a piece of paper.

Is it really fair to give a mark to a 16-year-old that can either open doors or forever close them? Surely, education should be about linking children to their community and other generations, because learning has a social impact too. This week, Members from across this Senedd will be launching a new cross-party group on inter-generational solidarity, and I think that this is an area that our politics will have to return to.

Away from exams, our motion today speaks to the myriad pressures that our young people face. At the end of August, a report was published that asked children in 35 countries about how they felt about the future and themselves. The children in Wales had some of the lowest scores in terms of happiness. Worst of all, those sobering results weren't taken this year, during the pandemic, but two years ago. I dread to think how much worse the outlook could be if those same young people were surveyed today.

When the report was published, I wrote an open letter to the young people of Wales, saying that we shouldn't just note the findings, shake our heads and move on. They should shame us all. Young people are our future. They are our guiding light. It should stop us in our tracks that those young people's outlook on their own futures is so bleak, and we should act to change this.

Llywydd dros dro, our motion today is calling for mental health support, for counselling and therapy services to be made available for every school in Wales. Our motion also calls for well-being to be an essential part of the curriculum. Lessons in school shouldn't just be designed around academic achievement, but should build young people's resilience and foster those young people's connections to their communities. Just as importantly, school should be about finding and feeling joy.

Our motion goes further. It deals with the content of the curriculum itself, stating that every pupil should have an understanding of the identity and history of Wales and the diverse stories that come together to create our nation. And our motion seeks to give a right to the children of Wales to learn through the medium of Welsh. This year, the children and young people of Wales have had to face real concerns and stresses. In passing this motion, our Senedd will show our commitment to their well-being, to their development, and to their future. I hope that other Members will feel as I do.

I think this is an exercise in how not to write a motion, because it's so full of grandiose statements and hyperbole, but nothing about the complexity of the current situation that schools are facing, and also, I think, pre-empting the work of our colleagues on the children and young people's committee. So, as a set of proposals, it covers at least four different subjects—it's hard to know where to start. Nevertheless, Suzy Davies and Delyth Jewell have both made some important points, which need to be considered by the children and young people's committee, but I really think the motion itself doesn't do justice to either party, because the amendments don't really clear it up. I think that we clearly have to give priority to the mental well-being of young people in the new curriculum, because we know that many young people have suffered profoundly as a result of the lockdown, and we need to really ensure that this doesn't happen going forward. 

I visited the school where I'm a governor—the secondary school where I'm a governor—in my constituency today, and I was really impressed by the arrangements made at St Teilo's for the well-being of students and for staff. I thought the plans were exemplary, and each of the teachers move classroom rather than the pupils, as is normal in secondary school, but that enables each class within each year group to be in separate bubbles. So, each year group has its own separate section of the building with its own outdoor play area, and each classroom has the windows open so that there's proper ventilation. Year 7 has no difficulty in following any of this, because this is pretty much a continuation of what happens in primary school. Year 8—there was some very dedicated learning and excellent teaching going on, and what happens in year 8 is that there is an achievement officer who sits in the corridor outside these eight classrooms, and she is available to supervise any of the reasons why a pupil is leaving the classroom during a lesson, and is also available to talk to pupils about things that may be worrying them and which could be getting in the way of their learning. I spoke to a 13-year-old who said she liked the new arrangements, as it made it easier for her to meet up with her friends during the mid-morning and lunch break, as they're not all being dispersed into different sections of what is quite a large school.

I was particularly struck by the amended learning arrangements for young people who are finding it very difficult to follow the full secondary curriculum, and many of the pupils I went to see who are having a much more intense ratio of teachers to pupils said they much preferred this system of teaching rather than being in a classroom of 20 to 30 pupils. Clearly, it's much more expensive if you have more adults to the ratio of pupils—that is much more expensive. But I was also very impressed by the way in which the headteacher was approaching the well-being of his staff as well, and particular arrangements have been put in place for those members of staff who were finding living through this pandemic a very worrying experience. It's difficult to predict who's going to be badly affected by this, but they were very sensitive arrangements—changing of people's timetables, amending of people's hours—to ensure that those people didn't simply go off on sick and then you've got to bring in supply teachers, which increases the risk. One of the other things that's really important for all schools to ensure is happening is that any pupil who has been identified as needing a test is simply not allowed back into school until they've had a test and it's proved to be negative. And where it's been proved to be positive—and it's only happened in a very few cases—the headteacher has already done the risk assessment arrangements behind that individual child so that they know exactly what action needs to be taken as a result of that positive test.

So, I think that this school is running a very safe ship. I like the wording of the relevant amendment—I think it's amendment 8 of the Conservatives' amendments—but I think it would be wrong to assume that all schools are managing this very strange situation in as good a way as St Teilo's is doing, and I wonder what role Estyn and the consortiums are playing to ensure that all schools have really robust risk assessment and teaching and learning plans to ensure that all our pupils are learning as well as possible in these very strange circumstances that we're all living under.

Lastly, I just want to say—

Dai—. No, no—

Okay.

You're well over six minutes. Dai Lloyd.

Thank you very much. In this debate, I'm going to focus on Welsh-medium education and experience as the former chair of the governing body of Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg y Login Fach in Waunarlwydd, Swansea, with 250 pupils and 92 per cent of them coming from non-Welsh-speaking homes. It's likely that the lack of action taken and lack of any meaningful response to Professor Sioned Davies's 'Un iaith i bawb' report that crystallises the insufficient progress that has been made in the field of Welsh-medium education since devolution. It was said to the Government back in 2013 that it was the eleventh hour and that action should be taken to create one continuum of learning and one qualification for all with regard to the Welsh language urgently, so that more young people weren't left behind in terms of fluency in both of their national languages.

There are hard questions to be asked in terms of how we've continued with this deficient system for seven years without taking action. And the education department of the Welsh Government has a great deal to answer for, but the same department has equally complex questions to answer in looking forward, in terms of how a piece of proposed legislation that, according to Aled Roberts, endangers the status of the Welsh language, that makes English a mandatory element of the curriculum, undermining Welsh-medium education and that militates against the Welsh language strategy of the Government itself—those are his words—has made its way out of the virtual doors of Cathays Park at all, not to mention begun its parliamentary journey.

Now, another thing that will be harmful to the vision for the future is the lack of appreciation and growth of what we have already. Swansea council closed Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Felindre in my region, contrary to Welsh language standards, selling the school at an auction in London and raising two fingers to the Welsh Language Commissioner's ruling in terms of the lack of consideration given to the Welsh language.

Now, in a similar recent case, a group from Rhondda Cynon Taf took the council to court with regard to Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pont Sion Norton and other schools, and they won their case, which shows the strength of feeling with regard to Welsh education. The judgment made by Justice Fraser is a major step forward in terms of the expectation of courts that local authorities give due regard to the Welsh language in making decisions, and safeguards other communities. According to the court judgment, only 10 per cent of the impact assessment with regard to closing Ysgol Pont Sion Norton focused on the impact on the Welsh language. And the council, in trying to challenge the basis of the judgment, are continuing to fail to accept that increasing Welsh-medium school places on a county basis doesn't provide redress for withdrawing the provision in one community, which means that pupils there could have been lost forever to Welsh-medium education, as said in the judgment.

Now, I endorse what Siân Gwenllian said yesterday to Jeremy Miles —that it's a disgrace for any local authority to be challenging the judgment on this basis and the precedents arising from it. The Government needs to give a clear statement that they won't be supporting the appeal on this basis, and instead of trying to undermine the case, they should be promoting the result.

Jeremy Miles mentioned yesterday that the Government was considering the impact of the judgment—the impact on councils such as Swansea and Rhondda that are continuing to hinder the efforts to grow Welsh-medium education. But if 1 million Welsh speakers is a genuine ambition for the Government, then it should welcome the positive impact and the rising expectations resulting from this court case in terms of considering the impact of decisions on the Welsh language in a meaningful and comprehensive manner. We need to see this as a positive decision for the communities of Wales, for Welsh-medium education and for the power of the people.

So, to conclude, remembering Felindre, we support parents, teachers, pupils and the communities of Pontypridd in their campaign for education and the Welsh language, because the campaign in Pontypridd is a campaign for the whole of Wales and crystallises the choice for the Welsh Government: support the significant step forward for Welsh-medium education or support county councils that are undermining efforts to create the million Welsh speakers. Thank you.

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—

Okay, thank you, David. I was hoping you were coming to a natural conclusion, but I'm not so sure now, but you are over six minutes. Mandy Jones—

I will close on a very simple point—

No—

I do believe that there is a strong future for young people in Wales. I do believe this curriculum gives them an opportunity, and I do believe that we—

Can the operator please mute David Rees now? Mandy Jones.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I'd like to start by paying tribute to all of our young people. Their lives, perhaps more than any of ours, have been turned upside down by lockdown. They've not seen their friends, they've had their usual routines taken away, they've had to get used to different ways of learning, of living and of being, and those doing exams this year have had a particular set of worries, and while I'm glad the UK had a common approach with teacher assessments, I see that other countries carried on with the examinations that were scheduled, either in whole or in part. I am deeply concerned that students across the UK this year didn't get the education to which they are entitled and didn't have the satisfaction of completing exams that they had prepared for for a year or more. I do, though, have grave concerns about an early decision on teacher assessments for 2021, although I acknowledge that this year's situation across the UK must not be repeated.

The focus of my remarks today will be on standards. I understand that the Minister will be making an announcement before or during half-term week about plans for exams for summer 2021, and yet, in England, they say they intend to run exams, maybe later and maybe amended, but there is a clear signal that they will go ahead. So, I would like to express my serious concerns about the reduction in the A-level gold standard in Wales if no exams take place next year and they do go ahead in England. This may lead to inevitable discrepancies in rigour, parity of esteem, level of demand and the standard of Wales's A-levels, and they may be perceived by UCAS, Russell Group universities and future employers to be of a lower standard than those taken by students in England. These are serious implications if Welsh students apply to English universities in particular, and there is a very real risk that their submissions to higher education institutions will suffer as a result of perceived lower A-level standards in Wales compared to A-level students in England.

I can foresee a time when we become comfortable with teacher assessments and sleepwalk into a situation where exams are left in the past. I read today that Philip Blaker of Qualifications Wales suggests a performance experience—a phrase that, at this point, I would suggest will hardly instil confidence in anyone with an interest in this subject. I think that that would be a slippery slope. Higher and further education will probably involve some sort of exam process, and Welsh learners will be greatly disadvantaged. I also have real worries about educational standards. Let's remember that Welsh education lags behind the rest of the UK, certainly according to PISA, so I fear that the necessary rigour to give Welsh kids any chance of competing with their peers across the UK will certainly be lost. And how will we know, and how can we give assurance to employers and higher education establishments that a Welsh education is at the same level as that of other UK nations and/or the rest of the world if we move away from an accepted examination process that allows for some sort of comparison?

I certainly agree with your point on broadband. It's 2020, and yet still areas of Wales, including my own, suffer dreadful broadband speeds. We hear stories of people standing by windows and walking down the road. I've had to do that myself. Broadband really does need to be prioritised as the next utility for learners, and all of us.

It is a matter of deep regret to me, and should be to everyone in this Chamber, that Wales's education standards lag behind the rest of the UK, let alone the world, according to PISA. I fear that any moves to move away from a system of exams to 'a performance experience' will compound any negative connotations around Welsh education.

As is often the case with Plaid motions for debate, this one just asks for too much and stretches the boundaries of devolution by stepping into welfare, so I'm not able to support it as a whole. Some of the points in this motion are certainly in the 'nice to have' bracket; however, parents and learners should still have a choice to learn through the medium of Welsh or not. The Conservative amendments do appear to be more grounded in reality, so I will be supporting those today. Thank you.

Diolch, Gadeirydd, a diolch i Blaid Cymru, for bringing today's debate. The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party will not be supporting the motion today. This motion by Plaid purports to be about giving young people in Wales a better future, but what its outcome would be if Plaid got their way could be precisely the opposite. I have seldom seen a motion whose outcome would so transparently and so obviously negate the purpose of that motion. Whether this is just Plaid's crass stupidity or whether the atrocious effects of their aspirations are actually entirely deliberate, I do not know.

The obvious thread running through their various points is the downgrading of education standards in Wales. It is so obvious that I almost suspect that it is being done deliberately. A consistent theme is that they want us to have different exams and standards from those in England, so the outcome would be that the attainment levels of Welsh school pupils cannot be measured against those in England. Therefore, as Welsh standards continue to go down, as they have been going down over the past 20 years, we won't be able to see that they're going down because we will no longer be able to measure how our school pupils are doing against how school pupils are doing next door in England. This will let Welsh education Ministers off the hook, as they can make false claims that Welsh standards are in fact going up, but the truth will undoubtedly be the opposite.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If English universities cannot easily measure the ability of Welsh pupils against English ones, then are we going to get more of our bright pupils into the top English universities, or fewer of them? If employers at big companies in England—in London, in Manchester and other major cities—if they are not going to be able to easily measure the qualifications of young Welsh people against their contemporaries from England, then are more Welsh youngsters going to get into these well-paid jobs in England, or fewer? I think I know the likely answer.

This idea of a new Welsh curriculum diverging totally from that in England is simply a ruse so that Welsh education Ministers are less accountable to parents in Wales and so that falling standards can be more easily disguised. The obvious clue to Plaid's intentions lies in their opening point, where they ask the Welsh Government to guarantee that exams won't be held next summer. Any sensible party would be asking the Welsh Government to do their utmost to make sure that exams do go ahead, but Plaid want the opposite. In Plaid's ideal world, there would be no exams at all, it seems, and all pupils would be graded according to what teacher says. But we know that, back in the real world, most students are desperate to sit exams next year, because they don't want to go through the utter fiasco we had this summer, when grades were given out according to teacher assessments and those awful algorithms that have been referred to. But Plaid today want to condemn more pupils to go through a similar shambles again.

Can I state a few simple facts of political life to Plaid Cymru? Wales has always benefited economically from its close relationship with England. Most of the economic development of Wales has been through interaction with England, through trading with England, through English investment into Wales, and through generation after generation of Welsh people trying to better themselves by seeking opportunities, sometimes in England. But Plaid want to close all this off. They want an independent state, based on what kind of economy God only knows, in which the key to attainment is that everyone in Wales will eventually speak Welsh. The rest of the world is desperate to learn English because of the obvious economic benefits of learning English. One advantage we have in Wales is that we have the English language, but Plaid want to downgrade the importance of English so that we can all speak Welsh.

After more than 20 years of devolution, Wales suffers from relatively low wages. Welsh Labour Governments have done absolutely nothing to change this. We now have the weakest economy of the UK's four nations, but Plaid aren't even trying. They want to wall us off from England and condemn future generations of Welsh people to poverty and lack of career prospects. But it will be okay, because all the poor people of Wales will be able to speak Welsh. You couldn't make it up. Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi i gyd.

I call on the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams. 

Presiding Officer, I think you might just have called me, but I'm not hearing any feed from your desk, so if you just did—. If somebody could nod or help me out, because I can't hear. 

Yes.

Great. Perfect. Thank you. I'm so sorry, I'm just not hearing the Presiding Officer's feed whatsoever. 

Can I begin, Presiding Officer, by saying that I would usually open my remarks on a debate like this by thanking whatever party has tabled the debate for doing so? However, I have to be honest, it's a little bit difficult to know where to start today with Plaid's motion. It covers so many different and sometimes completely unrelated issues that none of them can be seriously debated in a worthwhile way in such a short period of time, which is a real shame, because the separate elements are, indeed, worthy of debate. But it does remind me of the advice that, when you have too many priorities, you effectively have none, and I'm sorry to say that, in a way, this motion today falls into that category. And for these reasons, we will be voting against the motion as a whole today. Can I, though, say that I congratulate the Conservatives for their Herculean effort in trying to amend what feels like, almost, an unamendable motion? But I will, acting Presiding Officer, try to cover at least some of the issues raised in the motion this afternoon. 

I am acutely aware of how difficult this period has been for everyone involved in education, both staff and learners alike. But we have taken a number of measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. You will all be aware of the tough decisions that we've had to take in recent days to implement the short firebreak over the coming weeks, and we have tried our best to keep disruption to a minimum. We will be issuing guidance on our expectations for learning over this period. For learners in exam years, our overriding priority is to ensure that they are equipped with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that they need to progress into the next phase of their education or their training or employment, which is why, building on the resources already made available to schools, we have made an additional £3.2 million of capital funding available to further education and adult learning at the end of this summer. This funding will help our FE institutions to support learners to continue learning remotely at home. I know that online learning is not appropriate for every course or for every learner, and I expect colleges and schools to ensure that they respond to individual learner circumstances wherever possible.

With regard to exams and assessment, I want to be certain that the decisions that we make now are in the best interests of all learners, and that means making sure that we do indeed learn the lessons from 2020. Unlike the Westminster Government, I have established an independent review to help us learn those lessons and to provide recommendations for how qualifications are assessed in 2021. Qualifications Wales will also be providing further advice about how assessment should be completed in 2021, given the continuing disruption of COVID-19 to those exam classes' education. I will look at both pieces of advice and then will make a decision immediately after the half-term break. I think it's important that that decision is taken whilst children are in school so that they can have the appropriate levels of support and information and conversations with their teachers.

Can I just say, acting Presiding Officer—? When Gareth Bennett makes the accusations that he does about standards in Welsh education and entrance to top-level universities, in 2019, Welsh students gained more top-level A-level results that any other part of the United Kingdom. We have record numbers of students applying successfully to read medicine, veterinary science, engineering at our very top universities. Our Seren programme has ensured that if you are a comprehensive-educated child in Wales, you are more likely to receive an offer from Cambridge university than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. And when you consider the challenges faced in some of our communities of ingrained poverty, that is no mean feat at all. And rather than denigrate Welsh teachers and students here this afternoon, we should thank them for their huge efforts in achieving those issues. Goodness, 'perish the thought' he said. Well, perish the thought that we should be a nation that wants to ensure that all of our children and young people can leave their education system speaking both languages. Perish the thought to have a Member in this place that doesn't see the value in having and creating an education system that allows our children to be bilingual. I think that's much more surprising than anything else that I've heard this afternoon.

Now, I also know that schools are concerned at this time about progressing the curriculum. We have recently published 'Curriculum for Wales: the journey to 2022'. While this shared expectation document doesn't require action at this time, it does provide clear direction towards curriculum reform. Publishing these expectations is an important milestone towards curriculum change, but, of course, under the current circumstances, schools should only use these to support their planning processes when their staff and learners are ready. We're also continuing to work on the content of the curriculum, and I'm clear that it should encompass the breadth of experiences and histories that make up Wales, and that's why we've appointed Professor Charlotte Williams OBE to lead a working group to advise and improve the teaching of themes related to black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and experiences, not just in history, but in all parts of the school curriculum.

Turing to Welsh-medium education, I can assure Members that I am fully committed to ensuring linguistic continuity from pre to post-16. Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol's post-16 plan details the short, medium and long-term actions required to make this a reality. Work has started on strategic projects in health and social care, childcare and public services to establish sound provision and to develop a network of support for tutors and commission resources specifically to embed Welsh-medium provision for our learners. In the apprenticeship sector, more Welsh-medium assessor training is being provided, and the success of the Welsh language awareness e-learning module, Prentis-Iaith, is way beyond our expectations. The coleg is also developing the HE infrastructure, providing academic grants to universities in STEM, health and social care, and social sciences, to name but a few. I'm also working to achieve a common understanding of the expected linguistic outcomes of learners. A review of current school definitions was undertaken last year, and I will be consulting on new non-statutory arrangements around school designations shortly.

But, of course, learning is not just about exams or the curriculum. The mental health and well-being of our learners particularly during this time is of primary importance. Consultation on the whole-school approach to emotional well-being framework guidance ended in September, and we intend to publish the final version of the framework towards the end of the year or in early January. This statutory guidance will support local authorities and schools in meeting their own well-being needs in a consistent and holistic fashion that promotes equity of access. It's also an important tool in tackling the short, medium and long-term response to COVID-19 by addressing the well-being needs of children and young people.

Acting Presiding Officer, mitigating the impact of this pandemic has been a major focus for me and this Welsh Government and we've worked closely with the sector to provide guidance and support to ensure that COVID-secure education can be delivered, and I'm extremely grateful to everyone for the way in which they have worked to ensure that learning has continued. Jenny Rathbone's contribution just highlighted perfectly the hard work that has been going on in our schools, our colleges and our universities.

We have strong foundations in place, and working together, we are determined to continue to raise standards, to reduce the attainment gap, and to deliver an education system that is a source of national pride and public confidence, and we're doing all of that in the face of a global pandemic. And once again, I want to put on record my thanks to those professionals working in the education system who are doing everything that they possibly can in the most trying of circumstances to ensure that our national mission is reached.

Thank you. Helen Mary Jones to reply to the debate.

Thank you very much, acting Presiding Officer. I'm grateful to everybody who has participated. It was indeed deliberately set to be a wide-ranging motion and it's provoked a wide-ranging debate, and I'm grateful for that.

I can't possibly respond to all the comments that have been made. I think Siân Gwenllian's points about the importance of diversity in the history of our nation were very important, and I was glad to see the Minister respond positively to that in terms of the importance of the black experience and the Welsh experience in our curriculum. The right—as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes clear—of every child to their own language and culture is at the heart of what we believe an education system should be, and again, I was encouraged by what the Minister had to say about that.

Siân makes a very powerful case against examinations as a form of assessment, not only for this year, but going forward, though I would take on board—and I think we all would—the points that David Rees makes about any change in the assessment system needing to take time, it needs to be embedded, it needs to be sold efficiently. But I would argue that that, of course, is a reason to start on that work now. What is the point of having a world-beating, groundbreaking, inspiring curriculum but we assess in methods that were developed towards the middle of the nineteenth century? It makes no sense whatsoever.

I'm grateful to Suzy Davies for her contribution and for the Conservatives taking the trouble to amend what was a wide-ranging motion. It was nice that she didn't whinge about it, unlike others I could mention. Of course, we have some genuine differences of view, particularly about examinations, but I'm very glad to be able to accept amendments 3, 6 and 9, which we feel do strengthen and support the motion, and I think it is appropriate as parties across this Chamber that we do take time to address each other's motions and to do that in a fairly detailed manner.

The points that Delyth made about how difficult it can be to be young at the best of times and how hard it is now were again powerfully made, and again, she referred to children's right to their language and culture and how important it is that we all take responsibility for promoting and supporting the well-being of our children and young people.

I simply don't recognise Jenny Rathbone's characterisation of our motion. The issues facing children and young people in our country at the moment are broad and they are complex, and hence so is our motion.

Unsurprisingly, Dai Lloyd makes a very powerful case for the right for young people to receive Welsh-medium education wherever they are. He points to the failure to ensure, after 20 years of devolution, that all our young people are able to leave school speaking both our national languages. That doesn't mean they all need to be in Welsh-medium education, of course, but we make the children in English-medium education study Welsh and they don't come out fluent, and that's not acceptable. He makes a passionate case for clause (e) in our motion. As he said, the fights of the families in Pontypridd for Welsh-medium education is a fight that should be a fight for us all.

I've already referred to David Rees's contribution, which I think was well made. I obviously disagree with the points he made about the scope of the motion, but I think the points he made about the extent to which students have lost learning this year, and about how we can use moderation to ensure that teaching assessments are fair and that there is no bias built in—and I fully agree that we need to act quickly. If we are going to change assessment processes in the long term, that is a long-term process and we need to do it soon.

Mandy Jones was right to address the impact of COVID on our young people, and she was right to say we need a decision on the exams; of course we disagree with her conclusions. I don't want Welsh education to be just as good or the same as the other parts of the UK; I think we need to be ambitious and we need to make it much better.

Gareth Bennett—what can I say? Simply wrong in too many ways for me to go through, though I would associate myself with some of the comments that the Minister made in response to some of the things that he said.

So, finally, to turn to the Minister's contribution: well, I'm sorry that the breadth of our motion was too complex and too much of a challenge for her. I assume she does have civil servants who can assist her in these matters. She did—. Did she succeed in making clear to me which of the points in our motion she thinks isn't a priority? She didn't. There are some specifics I wish she had addressed, particularly the issue with regard to students being able to go home for Christmas. I don't know what other people's inbox is like, but the messages that I'm getting from students and their families—that is what they are most frightened about right now, because they want to know that there's an end, particularly those of them who are first-year students who may be in accommodation with people they don't know very well; they want to know that there's an end, and the Minister has assured us that there is going to be a plan. I hope it will be a good one, but I think she needs to come forward with that plan soon, and make it clear that those students will be able to go home to their families with proper testing around them to make sure they can do so safely.

Now, to come back to the Minister's response overall to our motion: well, we are used, of course, as opposition parties in this Chamber, to dismissive 'everything is fine—delete all' amendments. Basically, what we got from the Minister this evening, I'm afraid, was a dismissive 'everything is fine' speech. That was a little bit disappointing. A lot of what she said implied that everything is fine; a lot of the contributions we've had from others, acknowledging progress and acknowledging—and I think I do want to stress this—how hard people working in the system are working to make this right at this very difficult time, and I would say that probably goes for the Minister and her officials too—. But simply to dismiss the complex points in our motion and to react as if there are no issues that need to be addressed is a bit disappointing.

Acting Presiding Officer, I don't make any apologies for my party bringing a wide-ranging motion to this Assembly. I agree, for example, with the Conservative amendment that says that we could do with another whole debate on apprenticeships and work-based learning, and hopefully, if the Government doesn't bring one forward soon, we can make an opportunity to do that. These are huge, complex issues. They matter. And if we can't discuss them in this place, and if the Minister can't cope with having to answer so many of them at once, then something is somewhat wrong.

I commend this motion with amendments 3, 6, and 9 to the Senedd. Diolch yn fawr iawn, bawb.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] There are Members objecting, so I will defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

There will now be a break of at least five minutes to prepare for voting time, and IT support will be available.

Plenary was suspended at 17:49.

The Senedd reconvened at 17:54, with the Llywydd in the Chair.