4. Statement by the Minister for Education: Update on Qualifications for 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:03 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 4:03, 26 January 2021

Thank you, Rhianon. It is really important, even in these most challenging of times, that we keep focus on learning core concepts within these subjects that children will be examined on. But it is clear that you cannot examine a child on content that they have not sat; it simply can't be done and it's not fair. This system allows schools to be able to make a judgment on work and course content that a child has been able to cover. And again, we will be giving further advice to schools to make sure that core content in qualifications is the focus of the work going forward. And schools were working very hard throughout the last term to do that and they continue to strive to do that now. But, clearly, core concepts in subjects is really important.

We're also in early discussions with Welsh universities and further education colleges as to what we can do to potentially address any learning loss—so, working with our universities to establish pre-university courses that can be run remotely and digitally during the summer to make sure that everybody is up to speed with core concepts, which allows them to make sure that their passage into undergraduate study is a successful one, and, again, working with colleges and local schools to help pupils successfully transition perhaps from their local high school into their college with all of the requisite skills, or, again, a programme, above and beyond when that formal course has come to an end and grades have been submitted, that looks to keep children learning where at all possible to continue to develop their skills and key competencies as we go forward. Because that's what we need: qualifications awarded, yes, but also young people feeling confident about their next steps and feeling able to move on successfully to whatever it is they decide to do.