Campaigners have held a vigil to press for a pledge and firm timetable to replace Welsh second language qualifications with one exam for all pupils.  

Last week, in an interview on S4C news, the Minister for the Welsh language said that the education system is 'moving towards one continuum' so that 'every child' is 'able to be fluent in Welsh'. He referred to the period of qualification reform of second language Welsh as a 'transition' which will come to an end in 2021, suggesting that the Welsh second language qualifications will be replaced with a 'single stream' by that date. 

In correspondence between Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and the Minister Alun Davies following the interview, the Minister offered further talks but failed to confirm that there would be a single Welsh language qualification for every pupil instead of the existing second language qualifications.    

 

Toni Schiavone, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's education group, said: 

"We're losing sleep over the 80% of young people who are being deprived of the Welsh language every year. We're talking about twenty-seven thousand young people annually who are missing out because of the system. We had welcomed the Minister's comments last week as a step forward, but in the correspondence since then he hasn't confirmed the second language qualifications will be abolished. So, at the moment, the Government's policy is to begin introducing a new curriculwm in 2018 but also to continue with GCSE second language Welsh, a system which fails eighty percent. 

"Our expectations and sights need raising a lot higher, so we need to get rid of Welsh as a second language and create a new, single Welsh language qualification for all pupils instead. That decision needs taking as soon as possible so all the agencies involved can press ahead with drawing up the new qualification. They also need to focus on a significant and rapid increase in the percentage of the workforce who teach through the medium of Welsh."