6. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the most equitable way of assessing the quality of learning at the end of key stage 4 and key stage 5 in light of the latest wave of COVID-19? OQ57434

I thank Jenny Rathbone. Llywydd, Qualifications Wales has decided to hold examinations in 2022, consistent with the approach taken in other parts of the UK, and adaptations have been made to assessment content so that learners are not disadvantaged. On 16 December, the education Minister announced £24 million in additional support, focused on learners in examination years.

Well, that money is very welcome. Yesterday, I had an e-mail from a very anxious young lady about the possibility of having to sit exams after having had so many of her lessons delivered by supply teachers rather than the normal subject teachers. Clearly, with the rise of COVID again, it's beyond the control and best efforts of school leaders and learners to be able to ensure that they're getting the teaching and the level of learning that they desperately wish for. So, she's asking why we haven't already cancelled exams for this summer, but I fully recognise that the virtue of exams is that they avoid the class and racial bias that's inherent both in teacher-assessed systems and reflected in the way that computer algorithms are constructed.

So, given that exams are due to go ahead, both this week and in the summer, are there any circumstances that could lead to the Welsh Government cancelling these summer examinations, or how do we reassure young people that this summer's examination opportunities is but one opportunity to demonstrate the level of attainment that they are capable of?

Jenny Rathbone makes a series of really important points there. I fully understand the anxiety that young people feel faced with examinations and feeling that the experience they've had doesn't prepare them in the way that they would have wanted. But when we relied entirely on centre-determined grades last year—I know Jenny Rathbone will know what happened—we saw the gap between grades awarded to the more advantaged pupils and those on free school meals widen from 15 per cent, where it had been before the pandemic, already far too high, to 21 per cent last year. Examinations are an important corrective to unconscious biases in the system. We know that working-class young men particularly do better in exams than sometimes their teachers had anticipated. That's why it is very important for us to have examinations as part of the way that young people will be assessed in Wales this summer.

The WJEC has run examinations in November last year and November during the firebreak of the year before, and have done so successfully. They do act as an important corrective in that equity sense for young people who without examinations sometimes don't get the credit that their abilities would entitle them to have when we rely simply on other methods. But it's a blended approach. Examinations, yes—carefully controlled, content reduced, advanced notice of subjects to be covered and so on, to take account of the points that Jenny Rathbone made—alongside other forms of assessment, will allow a rounded result for those young people, and one that is useable not just in Wales, but across the United Kingdom, because the currency of that award has been protected and means that it will be recognised when young people come to use it when applying for jobs or looking to go on courses in other parts of the United Kingdom.