First of all, I would like to thank the Petitions Committee for bringing both petitions to the attention of the Senedd, and thank you for bringing them together in a single debate, which is the right and appropriate thing to do. And I'd like to thank too those people who arranged both petitions, Elfed Wyn Jones and Angharad Owen, who worked so hard to gather so many signatures. I know that Elfed Wyn Jones had intended to walk from the farm where he lives in Meirionnydd to the Senedd in Cardiff to present the petition, and had hoped to attend the debate, but, of course, because of restrictions, that wasn't possible. But he has been walking the same distance on the farm, back in Trawsfynydd, and has drawn attention to this issue that he feels so passionately about.

In the Children, Young People and Education Committee, we have been discussing the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Bill, gathering evidence from a number of different sources. And I have been trying to make the point consistently during those evidence sessions that we do need to think not only of the content of the Bill as it currently stands, but we also need to think about those issues that aren't currently contained within the Bill—those that need to be on the face of the Bill but aren't currently there. And I do believe that both issues covered today, which do interweave—they both need to be on the face of the Bill, and Plaid Cymru has been consistently making this point.  

We need to ensure that the people of Wales are aware of our past as a people, our past as a nation in all its rich diversity. The lockdown has highlighted the importance of our national identity and it has also highlighted the need to give particular and urgent attention to deal with and eradicate race inequality. 

We need major structural change. Just as we need to provide education on healthy relationships on a cross-curricular basis in order to create societal change and in order to generate that change in the relationship between men and women, we also need to highlight the importance of the diversity of Wales to be cross-curricular, which deserves the same consistency and status as healthy relationships and sex education. The only way to do that is to actually upgrade these issues to be on the face of the Bill and to include them as a mandatory element in all schools in order to secure consistency for all pupils.