Plans to grow of Welsh-medium education "to fail"

Cymdeithas yr Iaith has expressed concern that the Welsh Government's plans for increasing Welsh-medium education will fail without firm targets that will bind future governments by law to deliver on those goals.

The aim of the Welsh Language and Education Bill, which will be debated in the Senedd next month, is to ensure that more young people receive Welsh-medium education over time. But the language campaign group has warned that the “pitifully slow” growth seen in Welsh-medium education will continue without statutory targets on the face of the Bill itself for the percentage of children receiving Welsh-medium education by 2050.

In recent decades the percentage of primary children attending Welsh-medium schools has seen very little progress, increasing from 19% to 22% over twenty years, with almost no increase at all in the secondary sector over the same period.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith is calling for the legislation itself to include a target, along similar lines to the targets on the face of the Westminster Government's Climate Change Act 2008, which places a legal responsibility on the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100% by 2050, in comparison to 1990 levels.

Toni Schiavone, Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith's Education Group, said:
"We've been campaigning for legislation to ensure Welsh-medium language education for everyone for over a decade, so we're glad that our Government and Senedd are legislating on this, but at present we’re very concerned that these plans will fail because there are no clear, firm targets in the legislation itself. Without targets, what will drive the Bill forward? What will prevent the Welsh language education system from continuing as it is at the moment, a system for a small minority?

"Current non-statutory targets to increase the number of children receiving Welsh-medium education are being missed repeatedly, so it's clear that we need statutory targets in the Bill itself so that we no longer have 80% of our children leaving school without being able to speak the language confidently. The danger is that the majority of our young people will still be deprived of the Welsh language unless targets are included in the legislation to drive things forward."

The Welsh Language and Education Bill will be discussed at the Senedd on 6 May and all parties will have the opportunity to submit amendments to the Bill.

Toni Schiavone added:
"If the Government seriously wants to transform our education system and give the Welsh language to all children, it needs to include targets in the Bill itself, in order to legally bind future governments to its goals, and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to achieving that."