Language campaigners have raised questions about the review of the curriculum commissioned by Education Minister Huw Lewis, following a meeting between the academic leading the research and a deputation from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. 

 

The language group has written formally to Huw Lewis AM asking why he hasn't appointed a strong committee of Welsh educationalists to support Professor Graham Donaldson from Glasgow University who was commissioned to conduct a review of the curriculum in Welsh schools. 

 

As part of his work of making recommendations for the second stage of the Curriculum review, Professor Donaldson was given a number of subject papers which were prepared by committees in Wales - including a committee report chaired by Professor Sioned Davies. Professor Davies's report called for overhauling "Welsh as a second language", and replacing it with a continuum where every school uses Welsh as a medium of instruction. The aim of the Davies report was to ensure that every pupil gained fluency in the language. 

 

In his letter to the Minister, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's education spokesperson Ffred Ffransis states: "There is no question that Professor Graham Donaldson has a good understanding of the place of subjects like mathematics in a curriculum, but it's unfair to expect him to understand the central place of the Welsh language in our curriculum. The danger is that he will see it as just an additional subject, instead of an essential skill, of which, no pupil should be deprived. 

 

He added: "The First Minister said he appointed Professor Donaldson to lead a curriculum review, that presumes he has a team to lead and to support him. I would ask you to name the educationalists who are supposed to support Professor Donaldson, in order for people to have the confidence that the review will be based on an understanding of the values which are fundamental to education in Wales, including the essential role of the Welsh language in it." 

 

A debate on Graham Donaldson's curriculum review will be held at Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's annual general meeting on Saturday 4th October in Pwllheli.