People of Wales in favour of giving Welsh to every child according to opinion poll

The majority of people in Wales believe that all children should leave school with the ability to speak Welsh confidently, and a significant proportion support all schools becoming Welsh-medium by 2050, according to the results of a new opinion poll.

According to Cymdeithas yr Iaith, a pressure group for Welsh language rights who commissioned the survey, the results show that the Government needs to be more “radical” with the plans for Welsh-medium education in their proposed legislation, the Welsh Language and Education Bill.

59% of people questioned in a survey by YouGov believed that schools should aim to educate all pupils to become confident Welsh speakers, with 29% disagreeing and 12% answering ‘don’t know’. Excluding those who answered ‘don’t know’, the percentage in favour rose to 67%.

Support

In the same survey, 39% of people said they supported the principle that all schools in Wales should move to teaching through the medium of Welsh by 2050, with 47% opposed and 14% not knowing.

Omitting those who answered ‘don’t know’, the figure in support rose to 45%.

Support for Welsh language education was highest among those aged 16-24. In this age group, 74% believed that all children should leave school speaking Welsh confidently and 55% supported converting all schools to Welsh-medium teaching by 2050.

Excluding those who answered ‘don’t know’, the figures rose to 80% and 60% respectively.

“Mainstream idea”

Responding to the results of the survey, Toni Schiavone, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Education Group, said: “We believe that every child in Wales should have the right to become a confident Welsh speaker through the statutory education system, and it is clear from these results that the majority of people in Wales agree with us on this. These results also show that our policy of Welsh-medium education for all is now a mainstream idea.

“Currently, around 80% of our children leave school without being able to use Welsh confidently in their everyday lives, an obstacle that excludes them from so many opportunities culturally, socially and in the workplace.

“It is noteworthy that exactly the same percentage of people aged 16-24 – 80% – want everyone to leave school as Welsh speakers.

“Many of these young people will have left school in recent years having had twelve years of Welsh lessons in their period in statutory education but are unable to use Welsh confidently and feel that the system has failed them.”

Criticism

Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s criticism of the Government’s Welsh and Education Bill is based on the lack of statutory targets for the percentage of children in Welsh-medium education, a low proportion of Welsh-medium teaching in predominantly English-medium schools, and the lack of funding commitments to up-skilling the education workforce’s Welsh language ability.

Toni Schiavone added: “The Welsh Government has the power to change the system, and realize the wishes of the people of Wales, in order to give the Welsh language to every child.

“We are calling on Mark Drakeford, the minister responsible for this legislation, to think seriously about the views of our young people who have been let down by the current system, and to make bold reforms to the Bill that will ensure that the next generation of young people leave school with confidence in their Welsh.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Our Welsh Language and Education Bill aims, by 2050, to give all children in Wales a fair opportunity to become independent and confident Welsh speakers by the time they reach the end of compulsory school age, regardless of their background and whichever language category school they attend.”