Plaid Cymru supports the direction that the new education curriculum takes us in. The young people of Wales have wanted to learn skills appropriate for life and modern workplaces for some time. We also believe in empowering teachers and giving them the freedom to teach creatively. The emphasis on the development and progress of the individual is also to be warmly welcomed. Enabling every individual, whatever their circumstances, to reach their full potential, is at the core of our values as a nation.

There is a real opportunity, through the curriculum, to start to transform the education system in Wales. If it is to properly take root, our teachers will need the space and the opportunity to fully understand the requirements of the new curriculum. This is more important than ever given COVID, when there will be so many challenges facing our schools, but I do agree with the Minister that the emphasis of the new curriculum could be beneficial in that recovery, with the excellent emphasis on mental health and well-being.

If the curriculum is to succeed, then giving our teachers the opportunity to adapt is crucially important, and to do that they will need the support of supply teachers and that will be priceless. We will also need sufficient teaching resources, and to deliver that, we need an injection of financial investment so that that can reach the schools. We also need to align the assessment and schools accountability systems to the new curriculum. We need to re-design qualifications and to move away from examinations and towards ongoing assessment. The emphasis on individual progress needs to be reflected in the way that we assess too.

In turning now to the Bill itself, I do believe that the Bill itself is flawed. There is no consistency within it, because it does emphasise certain mandatory elements, but rejects and refuses to include others. Whilst agreeing with the inclusion of relationship and sexuality education, and religion, values and ethics on the face of the Bill, Plaid Cymru argued for the inclusion of two other mandatory elements that could also contribute towards creating that social, far-reaching transformation that we want to see, namely the history of Wales in all of its diversity, including black and people of colour history, and environmental education, including climate change.

Whilst there is an assurance that these two transformational elements that are on the face of the Bill will be taught, there is no assurance that the other two that I've mentioned will be given due attention, and for me, that is a fundamental flaw within the Bill. Guidance simply isn't enough. It's easy to scrap guidance or to change guidance, unlike issues which have a statutory basis and are included on the face of the Bill.

I've not been given a logical explanation that could convince me as to why my amendments couldn't have been accepted, which also includes significantly strengthening the way the Welsh language is taught in our schools. We will, therefore, vote against the legislation today, and we, in Government, will seek an early opportunity to amend it.