What’s the Point?

Ffred Ffransis, on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Carmarthenshire Region

Overnight, the agenda has been published for the meeting on Monday (5 October) of Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet, and it will be discussing a recommendation (to full council) that Ysgol Meidrim, near Sanclêr, should be closed for Christmas and never to
reopen.

Faced with yet another tired proposal to close a Welsh-medium village school, many will be asking the question “What’s the point of a discussion when the outcome always seems the same?”

The report, to be presented to Cabinet, on the objections to closure (which outnumber support by a ratio of 20 to 1) ironically sums up the feeling when it reports that “Many objectors referred specifically to what they perceived as a predetermined approach to
decision-making. Several respondents stated that they felt closure had been identified as the preferred outcome from an early stage in the process and that subsequent consultation activities were directed towards justifying that conclusion.”

Too right! So what was the point of consultation if they were determined to close a school in the first place? What’s the point of wasting tens of thousands of pounds on supposedly collecting evidence which never changes any decision?

What, in fact, is the point of paying everyone to attend a formal Cabinet meeting when apparently the decision has already been taken in practice at a behind-closed-doors

“Pre-Cabinet” meeting of councillors and officers with neither the public nor the press allowed, and no publicly available minutes (as per normal practice so it seems)?

On Monday councillors are set to go through the motions of debate and reach a pre-determined conclusion. What’s the point?

What’s the point of a supposed Presumption against Closure of Rural Schools when it is interpreted by Local Authorities as merely ticking extra boxes to demonstrate compliance with set criteria, normally satisfied by cut-and-paste clichés in an expensive bureaucratic exercise?

What’s the point of having a Welsh Language Promotion Strategy in the county if both planning policies and educational policies of closing Welsh-medium schools which are the hub of their communities undermine the whole strategy? What’s the point?

What’s the point of a Welsh language education policy being confined to the medium of statutory education rather than being a powerhouse for the community also? That just means that pupils associate the Welsh language only with school rather than as an integral part of daily life, and creates a desire to throw Welsh away with the school uniform when they leave school.

What’s the point of having a strategy to reduce the outward flow of young people from Welsh-speaking rural communities if, by centralising schools, we teach them to leave their communities from the age of three years old?

Governors at Ysgol Meidrim may be thinking: what was the point of two years of hard work – supported by education officers – to vastly improve educational standards at Ysgol Meidrim if the school is closed just as they succeeded?

Those same governors will be thinking: what was the point of responding to the call to draw up alternative proposals by working day and night to draw up a detailed plan for a Community Hub alongside the school providing childcare, training and a range of social activities through the medium of Welsh, and identifying additional funding and income sources?

What was the point of all the work in drawing up such a plan which could provide a blueprint for regeneration of our village communities if the plan is not even given to councillors who will be voting on their future?

And what, finally, is the point of having councillors voting on the fate of a school which they don’t even come to visit or discuss with parents and voluntary governors before deciding to write off their school and community into the history books?

And I’ll add another one! What is the point of many of those councillors admiring my father-in-law Gwynfor Evans when they do not act on one of his most cherished principles that “Wales is a community of communities” and we are all poorer when yet another is written off.

In the last political message which I received from him over 20 years ago, he asked his carers to telephone me to thank me for a letter which I had written to the Western Mail on the importance of Welsh-medium village schools.

Carmarthenshire Cabinet will doubtless respond that they have to weigh up all these considerations against educational and financial considerations and falling pupil numbers.

But Ysgol Meidrim does not fit that stereotype. Educational standards have improved, and federations and technology can give village school pupils broader educational experiences now. The cost per pupil of providing education at Ysgol Meidrim is only around £500 per annum more than the county average – which is good for a rural school.

‘The right thing to do’

The Council’s own document shows that, at least until this current process caused uncertainty, there would be just 14 surplus places at the school by January 2028 in an area (Carmarthen town & A40 corridor) where the population is rising.

If Ysgol Meidrim closes, then 20 other Welsh-medium rural schools in the county will be under threat and our rural communities
decimated.

Given all this, what is the point of the campaign to keep the school open? The point is that there is always hope, and hope is based on justice whereas optimism is based on fickle human understanding and emotion.

By Monday, Cabinet members – all honest, hard-working people – might question what is the point of all their own tireless work if it hardly ever changes anything, and they could stand up and say “No” and ask officers rather to spend a year working with governors and the community in Meidrim on their ambitious plan to see if they can work and provide a blueprint for the future.

If not Cabinet members, maybe members of the full Council, at the decisive meeting on 14 October might decide that their votes could be powerful in giving new hope to people.

What is the point of campaigning against the odds? The final answer is that the people of the Meidrim area campaign because it is the right thing to do and their cause is just and, above all, they are setting an example and giving possibly the best education to their children by showing that you have to battle for what is right in life.

It is important to do this while still respecting and believing in those whom you are campaigning against today, but might well be with you tomorrow.

Those parents and governors will be rewarded by knowing – whatever the outcome – that they have done everything possible for their children and community.

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