Say what you see

You may have read recently that end-of-term oral exams in foreign language GCSEs are to be replaced with term-time assessments in the classroom. Lib Dem AM Eleanor Burnham read this, in the Daily Telegraph as it happens, so she asked Education Minister Jane Hutt whether the policy would apply to Wales.

Here is the reply Ms Hutt gave plenary last Wednesday.

"As I'm not a reader of the Daily Telegraph (laughter), particularly, I have to say, when it does not relate to Welsh policy or Welsh issues, I don't think I need to comment any further than that I am fully in support of the pioneering work being undertaken by Cilt Cymru."

I confess I was not certain what this meant, but I took it to mean that Wales was plotting its own course and would not scrap end-of-term foreign language oral exams

Just to be sure I was not grasping the stick at its incorrect end, I checked with the Assembly Government press office. And it seems I was wrong.

So, to clarify, when Ms Hutt was asked whether end-of-term oral exams are to be scrapped in foreign language GCSEs, what she should have said was "Yes".