When the Welsh Parliament’s Petitions Committee met virtually on 24 January, item 3.2 on the agenda was Petition, P-06-1160 Require local Welsh exam centres to accept home-educated students for public exams. This petition was submitted by Claire Woolley in July 2021, and was signed by 393 people.
The petition had been discussed by the Committee on three previous occasions and each time it was decided to write to the Minister, Jeremy Miles MS, for his response. He replied on 20 August, 15 October and most recently on 17 December. Clearly, his first two responses failed to convice them, but on this occasion the Chair of the committee, Jack Sargeant MS, suggested that they “should note that there is a success to this petition.” Readers may wish to read Miles’ most recent response and decide if they agree with Sargent.
The transcript of this agenda item is quoted below, or you can watch the video here.
Jack Sargeant MS
“Moving on: 3.2, P-06-1160, ‘Require local Welsh exam centres to accept home-educated students for public exams’. This was submitted by Claire Woolley, with 393 signatures. I’d like to bring Members in at this point to discuss, and I’ll bring Buffy Williams in.”
“Thank you, Chair. I’d like to thank the petitioner as well for bringing this petition forward. As you know, I’ve been very vocal about home-schooled children, about the way they have to pay for their examinations and the right to sit examinations. So, I think we’ve got a little win here now with the way that the Minister has noted this petition and the actions that he’s putting in place. I’m pleased to see that there’s money being provided to the Welsh examination board to provide extra provision for these children. It’s really important that they’re listened to and that the families’ voices are listened to as well. Children are home schooled for lots of different reasons – lots of different reasons – and that’s got to be taken into account. So, I think we can thank the petitioner, and there’s a modicum of success with this petition. I don’t know where else we could take this petition as a committee, but I think this is an outcome we should be pleased with.”
Jack Sargeant MS
“Thank you, Buffy. Any other comments from Members? I can see agreement all around. I think we should note that there is a success to this -“
Buffy Williams MS
“Yes.”
Jack Sargeant MS
“- petition. We’ve also written to the petitioner to get a steer on where we could possibly take this, but had no response to that. So, I think you’re right with what you recommend there. Also, well done to you, Buffy, who spearheaded this change in the Welsh Parliament. So, da iawn there.”
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