English: Thank you for your statement, Minister. It's all very well heralding this wonderful new assessment tool and, granted, I think an adaptive tool is an improvement on a paper test, and the explanation you've given about the tool - it sounds like a very, very good online tool, but don't you think it should be up to the individual schools to decide how they assess their learners? It's the schoolteachers who have the classroom experience and knowledge and, with respect, not you, Minister, and yet here you are saying that you know better than them how they should be assessing their learners. If you want to provide a tailored interactive experience for learners, there's none better than that provided by a teacher who has the time to sit down with the learner and provide that positive learning experience. A teacher will be gathering information about a learner's progress in many different ways in every interaction with that learner and making immediate and sometimes subconscious assessments. Immediate and high-quality feedback is something that's part and parcel of teaching individual learners, provided, of course, that the teacher has sufficient time to spend with that learner, and I think that's the crux of the matter. Given the Minister's comments in her statement about the impact of the tests or assessment on improving standards of teaching, one can't escape the feeling that this system is simply automating something that's part and parcel of teaching and taking the setting of assessment criteria away from teachers and giving it to the creators of a faceless app. Good teachers already have an understanding of individual children's abilities and needs and don't need a computer to tell them. This assessment, whether online or not, is no substitute for the assessment of a real-life teacher with enough time to do the job they went into teaching to do. It's tempting to view this as a vote of no confidence in schools' ability to assess the progress of the children they're teaching, or should we all take this as a sign that Welsh Government isn't going to be employing the significant number of additional teachers Wales needs, making automation of certain aspects of a teacher's role necessary? If a school is confident that they don't need to use the new system or that they have a better way of doing it, why should they be forced by a Minister with no teacher training or experience to use that assessment? This week, a report on the BBC website said that one in 10 learners at our secondary schools is bullied every week, and even though the children's commissioner and anti-bullying charities have asked for statutory recording on incidents nationwide, this Government says that it's for the individual schools to decide which approach works best for them. But if schools can be trusted to record and deal with bullying as they see fit, why not the way they measure the learning progress their children are making? Some final questions: where will the teacher's personal assessment of a child fit in with the new system? What happens if the teacher's assessment differs from that of the online assessment? Will the results of the online assessment be a tool for an individual teacher to use to inform their own personal assessment of a child's progress or will it itself feed into another process? And will the results of the online assessments inform judgments made by professionals other than the individual learner's teacher? Thank you.
Welsh: Diolch i chi am eich datganiad, Gweinidog. Un peth yw cyhoeddi'r adnodd asesu newydd gwych hwn ac, mi warantaf, rwy'n credu bod adnodd ymaddasol yn welliant ar brawf papur, ac mae'ch esboniad o'r adnodd - mae'n swnio fel adnodd ar-lein da iawn, iawn, ond ydych chi ddim o'r farn mai lle'r ysgolion unigol yw penderfynu sut y maen nhw'n mynd ati i asesu eu dysgwyr? Yr athrawon ysgol sydd â'r profiad yn yr ystafell ddosbarth a'r wybodaeth, nid chi, Gweinidog, â phob parch, ac eto dyma chi yn dweud eich bod yn gwybod yn well na nhw sut y dylen nhw fod yn asesu eu dysgwyr. Os ydych chi'n awyddus i ddarparu profiad rhyngweithiol arbennig ar gyfer dysgwyr, nid oes dim yn well na'r hyn a ddarperir gan athro sydd â'r amser i eistedd i lawr gyda'r dysgwr a darparu'r profiad dysgu cadarnhaol hwnnw. Bydd athro yn casglu gwybodaeth am gynnydd y dysgwr mewn llawer o wahanol ffyrdd wrth ryngweithio gyda'r dysgwr hwn, gan wneud asesiadau uniongyrchol a greddfol weithiau. Mae adborth di-oed o ansawdd uchel yn rhywbeth sy'n rhan annatod o addysgu dysgwyr unigol, ar yr amod, wrth gwrs, fod gan yr athro ddigon o amser i'w dreulio gyda'r dysgwr hwnnw, a dyna yw gwreiddyn y mater yn fy marn i. O ystyried sylwadau'r Gweinidog yn ei datganiad am effaith y profion neu'r asesiadau ar wella safonau addysgu, ni all rhywun ddianc rhag y teimlad fod y system hon yn awtomeiddio rhywbeth sy'n rhan annatod o addysgu ac yn cymryd y gwaith o osod y meini prawf asesu oddi ar yr athrawon ac yn ei roi i grewyr ap diwyneb. Mae athrawon da eisoes yn meddu ar ddealltwriaeth o anghenion a galluoedd plant unigol ac nid oes angen cyfrifiadur arnyn nhw i ddweud hynny. Nid yw'r asesiad hwn, ar-lein neu beidio, yn gallu disodli asesiad athro o gig a gwaed gyda digon o amser i wneud y gwaith yr aeth i mewn i fyd addysg i'w wneud. Mae'n demtasiwn gweld hyn yn bleidlais o ddiffyg hyder yng ngallu'r ysgolion i asesu cynnydd y plant y maen nhw'n eu dysgu. Neu, a ddylai pob un ohonom gymryd hyn yn arwydd na fydd Llywodraeth Cymru yn cyflogi'r nifer sylweddol o athrawon ychwanegol sydd eu hangen ar Gymru, gan wneud awtomatiaeth o rai agweddau ar swydd athro yn rhywbeth angenrheidiol? Os yw ysgol yn hyderus nad oes angen iddi ddefnyddio'r system newydd, neu fod ganddi ffordd well o wneud hynny, pam y dylid eu gorfodi nhw i ddefnyddio'r asesiad hwnnw gan Weinidog sydd heb ei hyfforddi'n athro na phrofiad mewn ysgol? Yr wythnos hon, roedd adroddiad ar wefan y BBC yn dweud bod un o bob 10 dysgwr yn ein hysgolion uwchradd yn cael eu bwlio'n wythnosol. Ac er bod y Comisiynydd Plant ac elusennau gwrth-fwlio wedi gofyn am gofnod statudol o achosion ledled y wlad, mae'r Llywodraeth hon yn dweud mai lle'r ysgolion unigol yw penderfynu pa ddull sy'n gweithio orau ar eu cyfer nhw. Ond os gellir ymddiried yn yr ysgolion i gofnodi ac ymdrin â bwlio fel y maen nhw'n gweld yn dda, pam na allant yn yr un modd fesur y cynnydd a wna eu plant wrth ddysgu? Rhai cwestiynau i gloi: ble fydd asesiad personol yr athro o blentyn yn sefyll yn y system newydd? Beth fydd yn digwydd pe byddai asesiad yr athro yn wahanol i'r asesiad ar-lein? A fydd canlyniadau'r asesiad ar-lein yn gyfrwng i'r athro neu athrawes unigol ei ddefnyddio i lywio eu hasesiad personol eu hunain o gynnydd plentyn neu a fydd hynny'n cael ei fwydo i mewn i broses arall? Ac a fydd canlyniadau'r asesiadau ar-lein yn llywio'r penderfyniadau a wneir gan weithwyr proffesiynol eraill heblaw am athro'r dysgwr unigol? Diolch.