English: I am going to be but a pale imitation, I think, of the last contributor who gave it her usual amount of great gusto. I am very pleased to participate in this debate, because I think one of the mistakes that we sometimes make is that we think education is linear: children are born, they go to primary school, they skip along to secondary school, they go to FE, HE and pop put the other end and get some kind of job, and then through their job they can do any number of skills. But we've got to face facts that an awful lot of children hate school. An awful lot of children have a really miserable time at school. They get bullied, they don't fit in, and they have a huge amount of other pressures, particularly in secondary school when hormones are wreaking havoc. They may have families that don't provide them with support. They may be constantly told that they're stupid or useless or in the way, and they simply don't perform well. We also have to face facts that about a quarter of our schoolchildren in Wales have some kind of additional learning need, which can range from perhaps a small amount of dyslexia all the way through to a significant and profound social, anger management or mental capacity requirement. So, our children come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and they all need to find their way in the world through different routes. They simply cannot all follow the same route. And I've met a couple of my constituents who have really inspired me with their life stories. One was a young girl who had her first child at 14, the second one at 16. In her very early 20s, she realised she did not want her boys to have the kind of life that she was going through, and so she went back to school. She didn't have anything, and she went back to part-time and she got her GCSEs, and then she struggled on after a while, and she did A-levels, then she did a - I can't remember the exact name of the course, but it was some kind of foundation course from the Open University - and she's now training to be a nurse. And I have utter respect for that woman's life path. A young man came to me, honestly, he was about 18 or 19, he could barely string a word together, he'd left school at 14 and all he ever wanted to do was drive a digger. And he had actually earnt enough money to go out and buy a digger when he was about 19, and he had all the requisite whatever licences you need. But his frustration was that he wanted to try and grow it and make it into a business, and we gave him a little bit of help, pointed him to a couple of grants and things like that, and he went off and got a number of courses under his belt. This must have been in about 2009-10, and he has now got business training, he's got a second digger and he's starting to employ people. Again, he wouldn't have done that, he couldn't do that going through the standard route that so many other people follow. The reason why he was able to do that was he was able to access part-time education. He was able to go out and carry on doing his job, earning some money and he went to night school, he went to Pembrokeshire College, and then he just went on from there. I think that when we look at adult education, we really need to look at it in a very holistic way and accept that an awful lot of people will not follow the standard routes. So, that was the first bit of this motion I really wanted to talk about: supporting progression for people across the spectrum. The second element of the motion that I wanted to pick up was around the issue of making older people feel valuable and part of our communities and ensuring that loneliness and isolation, which we talk about again and again and again in this Chamber as one of the great public health ills that's slowly beginning to be visited on more and more people, we start to combat, and how do we keep people engaged? I've mentioned older people, but, of course, loneliness and isolation can hit you at any age, at any of the transition points in your life. You lose a job, you get a divorce, you are bereaved, something cataclysmic happens and you really struggle. The great thing, again, about being able to go into a part-time course - even if it's on something that is just a passion and not about learning a skill in order to go out and earn money - is you're building emotional resilience, you're building confidence and belief in yourself and you're making friends. That's really important because most people need to be able to make friends. We live very insular lives these days. Some people are incredibly lonely. Never in our society has it been so true to say that we have so many people who are totally lonely in the vast crowd that is the population on our planet. I think that adult education and community education, allowing people, or enabling people, to be able to follow something and feel part of the great jigsaw that is the big life, is really is really, really vital. Not everyone will want to do it, not everyone will want to follow this path, but there will be some who are just crying out to have that level of engagement. If we close these doors and we take the money away from this kind of, if you like, slightly softer form of education, and just concentrate it on the hard stuff, we're disadvantaging at least a quarter of our children, but an awful lot of adults who simply can't join in the way an awful lot of people who sit in this Chamber have gone through education.
Welsh: Rwy'n meddwl mai dynwarediad tila a fyddaf o'r cyfrannwr olaf a roddodd ei hangerdd arferol i'w chyfraniad. Rwy'n falch iawn o gymryd rhan yn y ddadl hon, oherwydd rwy'n credu mai un o'r camgymeriadau rydym yn ei wneud weithiau yw ein bod yn meddwl bod addysg yn llinol: caiff plant eu geni, ânt i'r ysgol gynradd, ânt draw wedyn i'r ysgol uwchradd, ac i addysg bellach, addysg uwch a dod allan yn y pen arall a chael rhyw fath o swydd, ac yna drwy eu swydd gallant wneud faint bynnag o sgiliau. Ond mae'n rhaid i ni wynebu ffeithiau fod llawer iawn o blant yn casáu ysgol. Mae llawer iawn o blant yn cael amser gwirioneddol ddiflas yn yr ysgol. Maent yn cael eu bwlio, nid ydynt yn teimlo bod lle iddynt, ac mae llawer iawn o bwysau arall arnynt, yn enwedig mewn ysgolion uwchradd pan fo'r hormonau'n chwarae hafoc. Efallai bod ganddynt deuluoedd nad ydynt yn darparu cymorth. Efallai eu bod yn clywed yn gyson eu bod yn dwp neu'n ddiwerth neu dan draed, ac yn syml iawn, nid ydynt yn perfformio'n dda. Hefyd, rhaid i ni wynebu ffeithiau fod gan oddeutu chwarter ein plant ysgol yng Nghymru ryw fath o angen dysgu ychwanegol, a all amrywio o ychydig o ddyslecsia o bosibl, yr holl ffordd i angen cymdeithasol, rheoli dicter neu alluedd meddyliol sylweddol a dwys. Felly, daw ein plant ar bob ffurf, ac mae angen iddynt i gyd ddod o hyd i'w ffordd yn y byd ar hyd llwybrau gwahanol. Ni all pob un ohonynt ddilyn yr un llwybr. Ac rwyf wedi cyfarfod ag un neu ddau o fy etholwyr sydd wedi fy ysbrydoli'n fawr gyda hanes eu bywydau. Roedd un yn ferch ifanc a oedd wedi cael ei phlentyn cyntaf yn 14, yr ail un yn 16. Yn ei 20au cynnar iawn, sylweddolodd nad oedd am i'w bechgyn gael y math o fywyd roedd hi'n ei fyw, ac felly aeth yn ôl i'r ysgol. Nid oedd ganddi ddim, ac aeth yn ôl i addysg ran-amser a chafodd ei graddau TGAU, ac yna daliodd ati i ymdrechu ac ar ôl ychydig, fe wnaeth lefel A, yna fe wnaeth - ni allaf gofio union enw'r cwrs, ond rhyw fath o gwrs sylfaen gyda'r Brifysgol Agored - ac mae hi bellach yn hyfforddi i fod yn nyrs. Ac mae gennyf barch llwyr tuag at lwybr bywyd y ddynes honno. Daeth dyn ifanc ataf, yn onest, roedd oddeutu 18 neu 19 oed, a phrin y gallai osod dau air at ei gilydd, roedd wedi gadael ysgol yn 14 oed a'r hyn yr oedd wedi bod eisiau ei wneud erioed oedd gyrru peiriant cloddio. Ac roedd wedi ennill digon o arian mewn gwirionedd i fynd allan i brynu peiriant cloddio pan oedd oddeutu 19 oed, ac roedd ganddo'r holl drwyddedau angenrheidiol neu beth bynnag sydd eu hangen arnoch. Ond ei rwystredigaeth oedd ei fod am geisio tyfu'r peth a'i droi'n fusnes, a rhoesom ychydig o gymorth iddo, ei gyfeirio at un neu ddau o grantiau a phethau felly, a chael nifer o gyrsiau i'w enw. Mae'n rhaid bod hyn tua 2009-10, ac mae bellach wedi cael hyfforddiant busnes, mae ganddo ail beiriant cloddio ac mae'n dechrau cyflogi pobl. Unwaith eto, ni fyddai wedi gwneud hynny, ni allai wneud hynny drwy'r llwybr safonol y mae cymaint o bobl eraill yn ei ddilyn. Y rheswm pam y gallodd ei wneud oedd am ei fod wedi gallu cael mynediad at addysg ran-amser. Gallai fynd allan a pharhau i wneud ei swydd, ennill rhywfaint o arian a mynd i ysgol nos, aeth i Goleg Sir Benfro, ac yna aeth ymlaen o'r fan honno. Pan fyddwn yn edrych ar addysg i oedolion, rwy'n credu bod gwir angen inni edrych arno mewn ffordd gyfannol iawn a derbyn bod yna lawer iawn o bobl na fyddant yn dilyn y llwybrau safonol. Felly, dyna oedd y darn cyntaf o'r cynnig roeddwn yn awyddus iawn i siarad amdano: cynorthwyo pobl ar draws y sbectrwm i gamu ymlaen. Roedd ail elfen y cynnig yr hoffwn ei grybwyll yn ymwneud â gwneud i bobl hŷn deimlo eu bod yn cael eu gwerthfawrogi ac yn rhan o'n cymunedau a sicrhau ein bod yn dechrau ymladd unigrwydd ac arwahanrwydd, y siaradwn amdanynt dro ar ôl tro ar ôl tro yn y Siambr hon fel un o'r gofidiau iechyd cyhoeddus mawr sy'n dechrau taro mwy a mwy o bobl, a sut rydym yn cadw pobl rhag ymddieithrio? Rwyf wedi crybwyll pobl hŷn, ond wrth gwrs, gall unigrwydd ac arwahanrwydd daro pobl ar unrhyw oed, ar unrhyw un o'r pwyntiau pontio yn eich bywyd. Byddwch yn colli swydd, byddwch yn cael ysgariad, byddwch yn cael profedigaeth, mae rhywbeth argyfyngus yn digwydd ac rydych yn ei chael hi'n anodd. Y peth gwych, unwaith eto, ynglŷn â gallu dilyn cwrs rhan-amser - hyd yn oed os yw ar rywbeth sydd ond yn mynd â'ch bryd yn hytrach na dysgu sgìl er mwyn ennill arian - yw eich bod yn adeiladu gwydnwch emosiynol, rydych yn magu hyder a hunan-gred ac rydych yn gwneud ffrindiau. Mae hynny'n bwysig iawn gan fod angen i'r rhan fwyaf o bobl allu gwneud ffrindiau. Rydym yn byw bywydau ynysig iawn y dyddiau hyn. Mae rhai pobl yn hynod o unig. Ni fu erioed mor wir yn ein cymdeithas fod gennym gymaint o bobl sy'n hollol unig ym mhoblogaeth enfawr ein planed. Rwy'n credu bod addysg i oedolion ac addysg gymunedol, caniatáu i bobl neu alluogi pobl i allu dilyn rhywbeth a theimlo'n rhan o jig-so mawr y bywyd mawr, yn wirioneddol hanfodol. Ni fydd pawb yn awyddus i wneud hynny, ni fydd pawb eisiau dilyn y llwybr hwn, ond bydd rhai sy'n awchu am gael y lefel honno o ymgysylltiad. Os caewn y drysau hyn a'n bod yn mynd ag arian oddi wrth y math hwn o addysg fwy meddal, os hoffwch, a'i ganolbwyntio ar y pethau caled, rydym yn rhoi o leiaf chwarter ein plant dan anfantais, a nifer enfawr o oedolion nad ydynt yn gallu ymuno yn y ffordd y mae llawer iawn o bobl sy'n eistedd yn y Siambr hon wedi mynd drwy eu haddysg.