Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 01 February 2022
Labour members send our best wishes to young people and staff who have been dealing with three years of unimaginable disruption.
There is much to welcome in the statement, extraordinarily late though it is. The cabinet secretary has finally listened to Labour’s demands for an appeals system that is free, that takes into account exceptional circumstances and that is based on no detriment. We set that position out last year and once again in the Parliament two weeks ago. The Government rejected it. The position that it took on appeals for the past two years is now untenable. There must be redress for the Government’s errors.
The statement also raises a number of questions. Will the appeals process be a right of direct appeal for pupils? Why must pupils and teachers wait an entire month from now for the guidance and support? On what needs-assessed basis will the Easter support money be allocated, and what is the rationale behind the figure?
Everything in the statement deals with the fact that young people have lost incredible amounts of learning during the pandemic and continue to do so. That has to be addressed somewhere in our education system. It is unfathomable that the Government refuses to conduct serious research to measure the impact of lost learning and develop a plan with resources that match the scale of the challenge. Will the cabinet secretary now commit to doing so?