Covid in Schools: 'Exams fiasco a low point'

Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams has been a member of the Senedd since the start of devolution

The "stress and upset" to students by last year's exams fiasco was the low point of her time in government, the education minister has said.

Kirsty Williams announced last October that she will stand down as a member of the Senedd (MS) after 22 years.

She said going back to normal school life was unlikely this year, echoing the first minister's comments.

She added it would be "some time yet" before the end of face coverings and contact groups in schools.

The Liberal Democrat was elected to the Senedd at the start of devolution.

The Brecon and Radnorshire MS was appointed education minister in former First Minister Carwyn Jones' Labour cabinet in 2016, and retained her position when Mark Drakeford took over in 2018.

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During the Covid pandemic, Ms Williams has instructed schools twice to close for most pupils for extended periods from March 2020 and January 2021, and cancelled summer exams for two years running.

She said her lowest point as minister was in August 2020 when thousands of pupils' A-level grades were 'downgraded' by an algorithm, causing uproar and a U-turn by governments across the UK.

"The low point absolutely without a doubt was the examinations situation we found ourselves in last year," she said.

"In hindsight if I could have avoided the stress and upset that caused to students last year then I would absolutely have done things differently."

The education minister has closed schools during the coronavirus pandemic

She said she was "really hopeful" that this year's system, based on teachers' grading but without an algorithm, would have the confidence of students, schools, universities and employers.

But she warned that a return to "normal" school life was unlikely in 2021.

"If we're thinking about school life looking exactly like it did before the pandemic then I don't think it will," she said.

"We will need to take all the precautions that we have been taking to ensure that our schools are as Covid-secure as they can be.

"I am hoping that we will see an end to the disruption to education then I am cautiously optimistic that we will. We want all children back to face to face learning after the Easter holidays, our further education students back and our university students back.

"But I think it will be some time yet before we see the end of face coverings, the need to keep children as much as possible in bubbles and all the precautions that schools are having to put in place."

Impact on children

Acknowledging the educational, social and emotional impact on children of the disruption to education she warned against a "counsel of despair".

"What we know about children is that they become what they are told that they are and if we have this mantra that somehow what they have been through will be of huge detriment for the rest of their lives that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy," she added.

The minister said high points of her time in government included moving ahead with the new schools curriculum, cutting infant class sizes and reforms to university finance.

As the only Liberal Democrat in the Welsh government cabinet, she said she had "never been in disagreement with the first minister" and "felt no constraints".

"Maybe some people would say I'm a little bit more liberated to say all of that because there aren't perhaps the political consequence or that internal party dynamic that I need to worry about," she added.