Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:59 pm on 26 January 2021.
Thank you, Jenny. We have to be honest and recognise that in moving to this approach there are risks that we will need to take steps to mitigate, and there is no good pretending otherwise. Sometimes, this debate about awarding qualifications is sometimes dominated by the suggestion that this is the simplest and fairest of models, but, actually, in speaking to young people, there are many young people who have concerns that, as you said, intentional or unintentional bias could affect their outcomes. And we know from the equalities impact work that was carried out on last year's system that those are real issues that we will need to work hard to overcome.
So, if I can just outline three ways—the first of three ways in which we will seek to do that. Firstly, it is the adoption of a national assessment framework that all schools will need to work within. Secondly, it is training—so, therefore, making sure that centres are aware of these potential challenges around fairness and equalities and making sure that steps are taken in the training of staff in assessment and that they are aware of that and can take action accordingly. Thirdly, it is the availability, which I referred to earlier, of equality-assured materials from the WJEC. I'm sure that many people in this Chamber will be aware, but, in setting an examination paper, a great deal of attention is exuded in designing questions that seek to be as open and inclusive as possible, talking about situations that are available to all children, talking about concepts or scenarios that children of all genders and from all walks of life will be familiar with. If you're asked to write a creative piece of writing about a foreign holiday when you have never had the luxury of experiencing a foreign holiday—. These are the things and thought processes that go behind designing examination papers and questions, and therefore making sure that there is available to all schools a set of equality-assured adapted papers and assessment materials that schools can then use, knowing that they've been through that process, is one of the ways in which we can mitigate against the risks that you're quite right to point out.