Diolch, Llywydd, for letting Laura Anne Jones go on. I was enjoying her contribution. Indeed, I've been enjoying the debate in general. Thank you, Jenny, for your contribution.

My view on this is one that is on balance—it will, I think, go against most people here, but, on balance, I've decided to vote against the general principles of the Bill. But, for me, it is a finely balanced decision and it's not made with overbearing confidence. I speak with humility; I'm not sure that I'm correct. I speak tentatively in what I say. I also recognise some of the achievements of the education system in Wales under the leadership of Kirsty Williams during the fifth Assembly. I have spoken before particularly about the Seren scheme and the number of children getting into top, leading universities and the increase in that, and the rise in attainment at the highest A-level grades. I think both those are laudable. Also, when we had the PISA results—and I'm very struck by just how central the PISA results are to how we talk about education in Wales and how they frame that debate—I thought it was important—and those on the benches to my left I don't think did this in the debate—to recognise that there was an improvement, and it was a significant improvement. And while I think it's still fair to make the case that the results were less good than they were for other nations in the UK, they were better than the very poor results that had gone in the previous three-year cycle.

This is a bold and ambitious new curriculum, I think Lynne Neagle said, and the Minister said that it was intended to raise educational standards for all and to reduce the attainment gap. I hope it does, but I fear that it may not, and it is because of how bold and ambitious and how radical it is that there are greater possibilities of things going wrong and perhaps going seriously wrong, and I would just ask others to be alert to those. The Minister says that Welsh Government will monitor how it's implemented, and of course they must. Siân Gwenllian said, 'If implemented and operated correctly', but that is a very big 'if', because you are giving hugely greater discretion to schools and to teachers than we have in the current system. I appreciate the argument why that can be a good thing. Sometimes people refer to the system in Finland, where teaching is held in incredibly high regard. It's very, very competitive to get into, and teachers are paid much more there than they are here. And in that system, I've no doubt that greater discretion and professional judgment will work. But I worry whether it will work to the extent that the Minister and others hope within our system, where we have had a long period of austerity and where teachers are not well paid compared to many other professions and it's not as competitive to enter the system. I think if you do have that greater discretion, there will tend to be a greater diffusion of approaches and, potentially, results, and it could lead to an increase in attainment gaps. For me, what would make me comfortable about that is if it wasn't just Welsh Government monitoring it but that parents were better able to monitor it by having results that were on a consistent basis and that were published to allow parents to assess schools and teachers as well as for them to assess children.

I also think there should be quite a high hurdle before we move in a very independent direction about how education should develop in Wales compared to England. I know a lot of people don't like me making that comparison, but wages are very substantially higher, on average, in England, particularly in London, and if, through having a very different education system going in a very different direction, it makes it harder for people from that system to get the most competitive and well-paying jobs and into universities in that system—I'm not saying it will; I'm just saying I fear that it might, no more than that—I ask for that to be considered.

I also don't support the unequal treatment of our two languages, and Welsh being mandatory from three, but English only from seven, although I understand the reasons—other people make the argument for that.

Finally, what's happening in RSE and RVE, I hear the arguments made on both sides, and I thought Jenny Rathbone spoke in a very compelling manner in that, but I was concerned by how strongly people dismissed what Caroline Jones said and what was shouted across the Chamber at her, because I think she speaks for a lot of parents. And we've had a very British compromise from the 1944 Butler Act, and how that's evolved over time, and to move in a very radical direction away from that is something just for which I would recommend caution. I'm not convinced that this Bill is going to lead to what its proponents believe, and I fear it may not be a success, and that's why I vote against it, but I do it with humility rather than confidence.