Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 21 June 2022.
I thank the Member for that question. I commend to him the recent lecture given by the Minister for education to the Bevan Foundation, in which he grappled with exactly the sorts of issues that Dr Hussain has raised with us this afternoon. These are complex matters. I have no wish whatsoever, Llywydd, to penalise any families who are struggling with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and face additional difficulties in making sure their children are present—as those children need to be, as children have a right to an education in Wales—in the classroom. I don't think that my tolerance would extend all the way to families who choose to take their children out of school in order to go on holiday. There is a different and a better solution to that, and that is to reform the school year. That is another measure that my colleague Jeremy Miles is working on at the moment, with our partners in the school and educational fields. By reforming the school year, we would be able to take away that perverse incentive, or impact on it, that exists for parents to do exactly as Altaf Hussain has suggested. That's not the answer to making sure that children get the education that they need and deserve in Wales.