Campaigners call on Senedd Members to support “insufficient but essential” amendment to Welsh-medium education legislation
A week ahead of a crucial debate in the Senedd on the Welsh Language and Education Bill, campaigners have backed calls for an amendment which would ensure that 50% of children will receive Welsh-medium education by 2050.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith are pressing Senedd Members from all parties to support a target within the legislation, despite the fact that the pressure group has been campaigning for several years for Welsh-medium education for all (100%). Currently, only around 20% of children attend Welsh-medium education.
The Bill in its current form does not include any target at all on how many children will be in Welsh-medium education in the future.
The Welsh Language and Education Bill’s objective is to ensure that more young people receive Welsh-medium education over time, but Cymdeithas yr Iaith has warned that the Bill as it stands is likely to fail, and that a statutory target must be included in the Bill in order to ensure progress towards the goal of Welsh-medium education for all.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith is therefore calling on Senedd Members from all parties to support an amendment tabled by Cefin Campbell MS that would place a target of 50% within the Bill itself, in the stage 3 debate on the Bill which will be held on Tuesday 6 May.
“Lack of a target”
Toni Schiavone, Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Education Group, said: “We’re glad that our Government and Senedd are legislating in this area, but the lack of a target in the Bill for the number of children attending Welsh-medium education is a fundamental weakness which means that the legislation as it stands will fail.
“This amendment, if passed, would place a target within the Bill itself that half the children of Wales will receive Welsh-medium education by 2050, which would legally bind future governments to this aim.”
He added: “We are clear that the aim should be Welsh-medium education for all, and we are disappointed that politicians have not pursued this path.
“But the fact that there is no target at all for increasing Welsh-medium education in the Bill as it stands is such a fundamental weakness, we see this amendment as an insufficient but essential one in order to ensure progress towards Welsh language education for all, which is a matter of justice for future generations.”
Welsh Government
The Welsh Language and Education Bill, and all tabled amendments, will be debated in the Senedd on Tuesday 6 May, and Cymdeithas yr Iaith is calling on politicians from all parties to support the amendment to set a target within the Bill itself that 50% of children will be in Welsh-medium education by 2050.
A spokesperson from the Welsh Government said: “Our Welsh Language and Education Bill aims, by 2050, to give all children a fair opportunity to become independent and confident Welsh speakers by the time they leave school, whichever language category school they attend.
“The Bill also sets out the steps we will take to set targets to increase or improve Welsh language education at a national, local authority and school level.
“All local authorities have strategic plans, which set out how they will grow Welsh-medium education in their areas over the next 10 years.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Welsh Language will address amendments tabled to the Bill during Stage 3 proceedings in the Senedd on 6 May.”
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A’r cwbl lot yn siarad Saesneg weddill yr amser, achos go brin y bydd yna unrhyw gymuned Gymraeg naturiol ar ôl erbyn 2050 o ystyried y gwladychu sy’n digwydd, wedi ei hwyluso yn fwriadol gan Lywodraeth Cymru, drwy eu cynlluniau ‘datblygu’ lleol. Sobor o beth pan fo’ch llywodraeth eich hun yn cynllwynio’ch difodiant.
The literacy and numeracy outcomes in Welsh schools are amongst the worst in Europe: can we focus on that first?
It’s likely that half of England is worse but we don’t know because they don’t publish their PISA results for the regions.
Of course that could just be because they’re too modest to brag that their poorest part of the UK performs just as well as their richest part of Europe, confounding the wisdom that says educational attainment is strongly linked to socioeconomic status.
I’d like more money spent on our health service. I like to speak Welsh but I’d like to be healthy enough to do so.
If the UK can find tens of billions to preserve and enhance the sordid Palace of Westminster it can find a few million to support the indigenous British language.