Access to Welsh-medium education in Cardiff shouldn’t be a postcode lottery

Carl Morris

Butetown and Grangetown in south Cardiff are among the most economically disadvantaged communities in Wales.

These communities are a stone’s throw from the Senedd and the headquarters of the local authority. The communities also include several cultures and a significant number of children who are already multilingual.

Although the three current Welsh-medium secondary schools in the city do excellent work every day, they are not accessible or visible to communities in the south of the city due to their geographical locations.

As the leader of the council himself has admitted in a meeting, the current geographical structure is a problem arising from historical decisions. But it is an injustice that continues due to the policies of the authority today and its lack of ambition for these communities.

The distance between the communities in the south of the city and the Welsh-medium secondary schools is a problem for three reasons.

First, the council includes distance between home and school as a criterion when allocating places in schools.

Second, for those in the south who get a place, they have to face a troublesome journey every day from one side of a city full of traffic to the other.

The children miss out on many opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, sports teams, and the schools’ community life.

Third, and for completely understandable reasons, many families choose not to send their children to Welsh-medium secondary schools that are far away.

It would mean passing several English-medium community schools, many of which are in newer or even brand new buildings. It is also important to note that Cardiff has never put a Welsh-medium secondary school in a new building.

It’s no surprise then that many families decide – often with a heavy heart – that Welsh-medium education is not suitable for their children, whether at primary or secondary level.

Engagement exercise

As one of the co-organisers of the campaign to build Ysgol De Caerdydd to be located in Grangetown or Butetown, I welcome the fact that Cardiff Council has invited residents to express their views on growing Welsh-medium education in an engagement exercise which ends on 26 March.

It is encouraging to see a discussion about the all-age school which would bring the fourth Welsh-medium secondary school in the city, located in the south, and also address the growing need for more nursery and primary places.

At the same time, it is necessary to draw attention to the unnecessary tensions about funding that the council has introduced and which are completely unfounded.

The engagement exercise has been presented by the council as six options to “tease out the issues” and stimulate conversation.

In fact, as the council assess these options, it has suggested that establishing a new school in south Cardiff would mean that there would be no investment in existing buildings (“Building condition issues at existing schools would not be resolved.”).

The council knows as well as anyone that a capital application would have to be made to the Welsh Government for a new school. The clear duty to improve the standard of existing buildings is an entirely separate issue. The council is fully versed in the methods of raising capital because we have seen five brand new buildings for schools across Cardiff in the last fifteen years. Why would it be necessary to choose between establishing Ysgol De Caerdydd and essential work to improve secondary school buildings such as Glantaf, Plasmawr, and Bro Edern?

Astonishing

The option to “move Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern to a new site in the south of the city” is a Faustian bargain. It is astonishing to see the council offering an option like this which would remove a secondary school from the heart of the east and place it as a super-size education factory on the outskirts, excluding a large percentage of east Cardiff children from community Welsh-medium education.

The petitions and letters of opposition organised by parents across the city prove that there is no support for the idea on the ground. In fact there has been a completely united front of different areas backing each others’ calls for the council to develop Welsh-medium education in every local area.

If the council is serious about its duty to proactively grow the Welsh language, it is disgraceful to suggest that the growth of Welsh-medium education in south Cardiff has to happen at the expense of other areas.

Whatever the intention, by suggesting things like this, the council is seemingly creating conditions for a zero-sum game, cats in a sack, where different areas would fight for capital in the Welsh-medium sector.

The basic principles that are in line with all of Cardiff Council’s own policies are that there is a need for local, sustainable Welsh-medium schools at the four compass points of the city. Welsh-medium secondary schools on the doorstep that are accessible to all families, in modern buildings in all parts of Cardiff.

Duty

Not one of the principles has to be sacrificed. Cardiff Council has a duty to adhere to every one.

The campaign for the new Welsh-medium all-age school is the second one by communities in the area in a decade, another step towards Cymraeg i bawb, that Welsh really is a language for everyone in south Cardiff.

Despite all the excuses from the council, questions of viability, and all the political games, the three-year battle to establish Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Hamadryad was successful. That in itself is an important lesson for all families.

And of course, the school is now thriving. The campaign for Ysgol De Caerdydd continues. Ymlaen â’r frwydr.

The Ysgol De Caerdydd campaign website can be found here.