Having said that, I am highly aware that there are a number of significant challenges related to this, and I don't want to downplay those challenges, and I think it's important that we do discuss them. Elfed Wyn Jones's petition calls on the Welsh Government to create a common body of knowledge on Welsh history. I would challenge Elfed here. Who will decide what the content of that common body of knowledge will be? I do agree that we need a common body of knowledge, but we also need to recognise that we would need very thorough work from our historians and some discussion before we actually reached that point.

The second petition calls for it to be made mandatory for the history of BAME communities and the history of people of colour to be taught in the Welsh curriculum. I agree, of course, but I would also challenge Angharad. Isn't slavery and colonialism just one aspect of BAME history, and in focusing on these aspects, aren't we at risk of forgetting the rich contributions made by black communities in Wales and ethnic minority communities in Wales to the history of Wales in all its diversity?

I do want to draw your attention to an important report drawn up seven years ago now by a panel chaired by the historian Dr Elin Jones. I do think it’s important that we remind ourselves about what was said in that report, which was entitled, 'The Cwricwlwm Cymreig, history and the story of Wales'. These are the words of the panel:

'Much of the debate on the history taught in school tends to emphasise the factual content of the curriculum. There is, however, far more to the discipline of history than chronology and factual knowledge alone. While chronology and factual knowledge provide a framework for understanding the past and the relationship of different periods, developments and individual actions', history also provides other opportunities too. And in the words of the report once again:

'One of the most important aspects of the discipline of history is the opportunity it provides of understanding that every narrative or historical argument is open to criticism, and that every historical judgement is provisional. There is no one history: every individual has their own experience, and their own unique perspective on the past…Realising this is a means of accepting and respecting different versions of history, while evaluating them against more objective criteria than our personal knowledge of the past, or a familiar version of it.

'Effective history teaching can help to develop the active citizens of the future. It can enable learners to understand their own history, and the way in which the past has formed the present, but, more importantly, it can help them to investigate that history, and evaluate different versions of it. It can equip every citizen to deal effectively with all kinds of propaganda.'

This is an important statement—and I am drawing to a close here—but I think it's important that we do bear in mind this context that Dr Elin Jones gave us. Teaching history effectively does refine our skills to analyse, to question, to not accept everything at first sight and to identify propaganda and fake news, which is so very important in the current climate.

There is a strong argument for including identity and the diversity of Wales, including Welsh history and black and people of colour's history, as a mandatory part of the curriculum, but let's not forget that there is far more to teaching and learning history and a huge value to it in our ambition to create young people who are knowledgeable and informed for the future. Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you for indulging me.