We move now to the short debate, and I call on Sioned Williams to speak to the topic that she has chosen.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'll give a minute of my time to Heledd Fychan. I grew up in Gwent, and I would go shopping in Newport. The famous mural that told the story of the Chartists, which now, unfortunately, has been destroyed, was a wonder to me. I learnt of their battle and their sacrifice through the graphic and dramatic images of that mural. I would insist on being told the story by my parents every time I passed, and I was encouraged to learn more about the history of my area and my nation, and about the battle of the ordinary people of Wales for a voice in the way in which their lives and society were governed. 

Yes, children and young people can be inspired, and we can fire their enthusiasm for ideas and campaigns, such as those of the Chartists, and that can be done in many ways: seeing public art or a theatrical performance; reading books about young campaigners, such as Greta Thunberg or Malala; seeing protests by young campaigners for Cymdeithas yr Iaith and Black Lives Matter. But it is in school, of course, that we can best ensure that our young people are introduced to politics in all its forms, and the way in which these ideas influence society and generate change. Including Welsh history in all its diversity, and political education, as mandatory elements in the humanities area of learning and experience in the new curriculum will certainly be a means of encouraging this. And there have been many calls in recent years, particularly as we decided to give the vote to those at 16 years of age, for a better framework, and more consistent and complete provision, to ensure meaningful and standardised political education for all.

It's crucial that we enable our young people to understand the way in which policy ideas, ideology and systems of government create the society and the world that they live in, and how they can have a voice, express a view and play a part in the democratic process, and to appreciate and understand why that's important, so that they understand that they do have power. There's no need for me to rehearse those arguments now because they have been partially accepted, at last. And I welcome the reference in the annual report on the Curriculum for Wales, published at the beginning of the month, about supporting learners to exercise their democratic rights, and to make political decisions, in order to nurture an understanding of the way in which systems of government in Wales work, as a central element of this area of learning and experience. So, change for the better is afoot, and I welcome that.

But—and I think this is an important 'but', and a 'but' that's worth raising in the Chamber this afternoon—what's being provided at the moment in our education system is inadequate, it's not consistent across Wales and it's not acceptable, therefore, if we truly want to empower our young people to raise their voices and generate change. We must bear in mind that no pupil in year 7 or older at the moment will be educated under the new curriculum. We must not forget those young people. And we must bear in mind that the Westminster elections and the Senedd elections will happen within the next five years, and hundreds of young people will turn 16 before that point. That is why I want to see an improvement in political education being addressed by Government now. There are also concerns that the plans in the new curriculum aren't on the firmest of foundations, and I will mention that in just a moment.

Our young people have been able to vote at 16 now in two elections—the Senedd elections and  the local elections this year. That, of course, is a cause of great joy and pride on a national level. My own daughter voted for the first time in the Senedd elections, and of course she voted for her mother, and my son in the local elections this year, and they clearly come from a family that discusses and, indeed, lives politics. But, I know that they and their friends weren't immersed in the topic in school. And I know that the number of voters participating in our democracy is not high enough, particularly in terms of younger people.

The initial data of the Welsh Government showed that between 40 and 45 per cent of young people aged between 16 and 17 who qualified to vote registered for the Senedd elections last year. Now, clearly, the pandemic had an impact on some of the plans to raise awareness, but survey after survey of young people has demonstrated that they want more political education in a formal setting. And the more young people learn about politics, the more they want to participate in politics. A limited element of what could be called political education is part of the current curriculum, as part of the Welsh baccalaureate and personal and social education.

In responding to a petition presented to the Petitions Committee in the fifth Senedd calling for statutory political education, the Minister for Education at the time, Kirsty Williams, said, 'Schools are already encouraged to provide broad-ranging education, including political awareness, and there are opportunities for learners to look at politics in the current curriculum through the Welsh baccalaureate and personal and social education'. But note the use of the word 'opportunities'. It doesn't give one great confidence that the current situation ensures provision of quality political education in all schools.

Some of the political education that is provided at the moment to our young people therefore emerges from elements within personal and social education, which is a statutory requirement under the curriculum, but, unlike other subjects in the national curriculum, the way that it is taught is reliant on a framework—a framework that schools are expected to use, but that they aren't mandated to do so. The framework says that learners should have an opportunity to learn about active citizenship, but not that they have to have that opportunity.

Many reports echo the findings of an inquiry by our previous Youth Parliament that only 10 per cent of the young people questioned by them had received political education. Their report stated that they were very disappointed to find that very few young people in Wales learnt about politics through political education—something that was frightening, according to them, given the change in the voting age. They felt that this reflected a lack of confidence among teachers and schools in teaching the subject. The Electoral Reform Society Cymru has echoed this point on the patchy nature of provision and the need to support teachers better, particularly given the change that is in the pipeline, with the introduction of the new curriculum.

Education unions have revealed that their members are concerned about providing political education. What more, therefore, can the Welsh Government do to support educators in introducing quality, rounded political education—an awareness that goes beyond an understanding of the bare facts and mechanisms of Welsh governance? How, for example, do we ensure that our young people have an understanding of the history and importance of the trade union movement, or their language rights? We need to teach about the systems and ideologies that give context and meaning to the party political discussions and the electoral processes in the first place. And according to the National Education Union, professional teaching varies across Wales, and we need additional support for this important subject now and in preparation for the requirements of the new curriculum. It is true that new digital learning resources were made available recently, but the lack of confidence and, of course, the lack of experience among teachers—the vast majority having never had any political education themselves—needs to be addressed quickly in order to raise confidence and ability among our educators to ensure a high quality of provision.

In terms of the Welsh baccalaureate, the global citizenship element within the bac does allow for some political education, but this doesn't always follow. At a national level, the aim of the global citizen challenge is to give learners an opportunity to develop an understanding of global issues, chosen from one of the following topics: cultural diversity, fair trade, future energy, inequality, sustainable living, natural and human disasters, and poverty. At a higher level, the global citizen challenge gives pupils an understanding of complex and multifaceted global issues within six themes: health, food and shelter, population, transport, the economy, and the natural environment. So, although every pupil studying the Welsh bac does have to undertake the global citizenship challenge, it won't necessarily include anything about Welsh politics or education about the governance of Wales or the electoral system in Wales. And the Welsh bac isn't mandatory either, although the Welsh Government encourages schools and colleges to provide it to all pupils.

In other nations in the UK, citizenship is a main element of the post-primary statutory curriculum, and Scotland introduced that way before giving the vote to those at 16 years of age. We cannot therefore rely on what is in place at the moment. There are awareness-raising projects, which are excellent and in place already in many school settings. I participated in a session at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd recently with the Politics Project. But projects such as these, although effective in empowering some groups of young people, are something of a postcode lottery, according to the Electoral Reform Society. The 'Making Votes-at-16 Work in Wales' report by Nottingham Trent University noted that the Welsh Government did not introduce a programme to strengthen political education when the legislation to reduce voting age was introduced.

A second issue specific to the implementation of votes at 16 in Wales was that the legislation did not include concrete statutory measures of political education, something that had been discussed in the reform process in Wales and identified as crucial in previous experiences of voting age reform elsewhere. This meant that, despite school-level commitments to citizenship education, when the legislation came in, there were no set plans for a co-ordinated effort to enhance political education within schools and colleges. Providers of educational intervention to be delivered through schools, including the Senedd, the Electoral Commission, voter engagement workers and youth organisations, struggled in their efforts to systematically deliver measures of political education throughout the period leading up to the election. 

According to the Electoral Commission report on the last Senedd elections, although the Democracy Box partnership project, which was supported by the Senedd and the Government, was a positive step, we need to extend the reach and impact of these programmes. They acknowledged that we need not only to improve current resources, but also to develop support programmes for those working with these groups. This was a neutral information programme. As I've mentioned, there is also a need for a general understanding of the ideas and ideology, which is the crucial context to governmental elections. There's nothing to prevent this from being delivered from a neutral perspective, such as with contentious moral and ethical issues.

We also need to remember about the thousands of young people who have left school settings and education settings since they were given the right to vote and haven't been inspired to vote. The ongoing weakness of our national press and media actually contributes to the lack of awareness that they so desperately need. So, could the Government therefore consider providing opportunities to tackle that in community education and further education settings, or through informal learning in workplaces, to ensure that all our young citizens can play their part in creating the fairer, greener, more prosperous Wales that we all want to see?

Therefore, in welcoming the progress and the opportunities that exist in the future, I am making the case for ensuring that we don't deprive those young people who have been enfranchised by us, but aren't properly empowered, to use their vote and to understand the power that they hold. It's clear that each one of us in public life has a role to play in this regard, but it's the duty of Government to create citizens who can contribute to the nation.

Young people are less likely to vote than older people, and unless you vote at a young age you are less likely to vote in the future. There is a very real risk that young people today who won't benefit from the new curriculum will grow into adults that don't vote in the future. We need to break this vicious cycle for the benefit of our democracy, our Senedd and our nation.

I thank Sioned Williams for bringing this important debate to the Chamber, because even though there have been developments in terms of the new curriculum, we do need to do so much more. I think that what she emphasised in terms of the postcode lottery is very important. We don't just want to empower young people to vote, but also to consider they could be here, regardless of their background. I think that through empowering them and ensuring that their voice—. Because there is a focus now on 16 and 17-year-olds because we can get their votes, but we do represent children and young people as well. I was very pleased to see pupils from Ysgol Treganna outside the Senedd today, three of them, year 6 pupils, campaigning and wanting to see us act on the climate emergency more quickly, missing a day of school. We're never too young to be part of our democracy.

The thing that I think is very important here is the empowerment, that everyone has a voice and that it counts, and that there is no vote that is worthless. I'd like to emphasise one of the things that I was told by a young person following Brexit, which is that there should be an upper limit on the voting age of things that don't affect you. We talk about young people having the right, but we have to remember how important it is and how important the Youth Parliament is, and other such developments, in order to ensure that the voices of young people and children in Wales are heard by us here, and will influence the policies that'll affect them for decades to come. 

I call on the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, Mick Antoniw.

Thank you, Dirprwy Llywdd. I'd like to thank the Member for bringing the debate forward today on votes at 16.

Giving our young people the tools to realise what it means to become ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world is a fundamental part of civic education. It involves teaching about democracy, our society and how we can all take part, and it's also about empowerment and emancipation.

I'm a firm supporter of enabling our young people to become active participants within the democratic process, from registering to vote through to participating in elections and beyond. I'm proud that we've extended the franchise to 16 to 17-year-olds for Senedd and local government elections. This gives younger people in Wales a voice in the way in which Wales is run, and it's solid foundation for building participatory democracy. My own party is committed to votes at 16 for UK Parliament elections and all other reserved elections as well, which we hope to see in the near future.

We want to help our young people feel confident when they visit a polling station to cast their vote. Ahead of both Senedd and local government elections, we worked in partnership with local authorities to support our 16 to 17-year-olds to register to vote. Engagement through community events, social media content and school visits saw local authorities increase the percentage of 16 to 17-year-olds registered to vote for the recent local government elections.

We also funded several third sector organisations to reach out and engage young people on the importance of registering to vote through their existing networks. These organisations developed and delivered wide-ranging projects, using creative social media content, online webinars and direct conversations with young people, and these social activities created an environment where discussions around politics and democracy could flourish. This approach allowed us to directly reach young people beyond formal education settings, providing a welcoming space for them to discuss the barriers preventing fuller participation.

This was more challenging in the run-up to the last year's Senedd elections because of the public health protections that were in place as a result of the pandemic. But we want all our young people to develop the skills, the knowledge and the understanding about the importance of registering to vote and their voice in our democracy. Learning about the legislative process and governmental structures, law making, devolution, voting and elections are all key to supporting our young people's understanding about politics, but also participating in it. We recognise that education plays a vital role in unlocking their drive for taking part in our democracy and exercising their rights.

When we consulted on extending the franchise in 2018, people told us that greater awareness and education were necessary to increase participation and we know we need appropriate education so our young people can make an informed choice at the ballot box. I agree with many of the comments that have been made in respect of the importance of that civic education. Our new Curriculum for Wales, being rolled out from September, will require schools to include learning about rights in their curriculum, including supporting our learners to develop an awareness and understanding of their democratic rights and how to exercise them. And I'd add the importance of local history as well as part of that education processes. We've invested in educational resources to our schools and colleges to deliver the support that young people are telling us that they need, and we've also produced professional learning resources to support our teachers to teach this area impartially and with confidence. More resources are being developed to support global citizenship and learning about our rights as a citizen.

We've funded the Politics Project's Digital Dialogue Wales programme, where Members from across the Senedd and local government attend online sessions with our children and young people to engage and put questions directly to politicians. These sessions have been hugely successful, as the Member for South Wales West will know, having given up her time to attend one with pupils from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd in Bridgend. I'm thankful to all the Members in the Senedd who have taken part to date and those who'll participate in the coming weeks.

As the Curriculum for Wales is rolled out, the Welsh Government will continue to work closely with our education partners to support our schools in this area of learning. In doing so, we want our children and young people to have the opportunities and the experiences to increase their understanding of democracy and the role they must play as citizens in an engaging way that promotes a lifelong habit of participation. I'd probably also say to the Member that she'll be aware that we are looking at the introduction of an electoral reform Bill, which hopefully will open the way in which our electoral system operates, increase accessibility, creating a twenty-first century modern electoral system, one that potentially is quite diverged from UK Government elections, but one where I believe there will be many opportunities to look at modern innovative and new ways of actually encouraging and initiating participation in our electoral system. Diolch.

Thank you, everyone. That brings today's proceedings to a close. I hope everyone has a nice recess. 

The meeting ended at 18:57.