In its response to the Welsh Government's draft Welsh Language Education Strategy ( consultation ends on August 5th ) Cymdeithas yr iaith has called for a basic change in the strategy's aim. The Society contend that the ability to communicate and present work in Welsh should be recognised as a basic educational skill and that the aim of the strategy should be for EVERY pupil in Wales, over a period of time, to be equipped with this skill and therefore receive a significant proportion of their education in Welsh.This is in marked contrast to the current aim of the draft strategy of increasing merely the opportunity to receive Welsh-medium education, and a simultaneous proposal to require LEAs to assess the demand for Welsh-medium education in their area. Cymdeithas Education Spokesperson, Ffred Ffransis, explained:"Cymdeithas readily acknowledge that the implementation of the Government's proposed stratgey should result in a significant increase in Welsh-medium education in many areas, and that is to be welcomed. However, accepting a target of 13% of Welsh-medium GCSE registrations means that up to 87% of Welsh pupils could be deprived of the basic educational skill of being to communicate and present their work in Welsh. We emphasise that this would not be a failure to promote the language, but would represent an educational failing by the system as the ability to do one's work in Welsh is just as much an educational skill in a bilingual country as being able to work in English and to be properly equipped to use I.T. effectively".

Cymdeithas recognise that it will take time to realise such an aim of ensuring that every pupil is equipped to work in Welsh. While maintaining this as an aim accross the country, Cymdeithas propose an interim system of two categories based geographically on secondary school catchment areas. In the first category ( probably to include most of Gwynedd, Mon, Ceredigion, Carmarthen and parts of Conwy, Denbigh, Powys, Pembroke etc ) Welsh should be recognised as the main medium of education in every school for all pupils. In the second category - all other areas - Cymdeithas suggest working towards the national aim of a bilingual Wales by implementing many of the policies in the proposed strategy of increasing the number of Welsh-medium schools and ensuring that other pupils have an increasing experience of Welsh as a medium of education, and not just as a subject. Ffred Ffransis explains:"The proposed requirement for all LEAs to assess the demand for Welsh-medium education would actually be a backward step in many areas where it has already been recognised that Welsh is the medium of almost all primary schools in the area. Neither do we believe that it is practical in sparsely-populated rural areas to deliver the whole increased variety of subjects for 14-19 year-olds in both languages. In the first category of areas therefore, it should be recognised immediately that Welsh is the main medium of education for ALL students and the point of the strategy should be to ensure that this happens in the older age-groups where students have been let down in the past. It should however be the stated aim that we work towards ensuring that ALL pupils - over a reasonable period - should be equipped with the basic educational skill of being able to communicate and present their work in Welsh and therefore receive a significant part of their education in Welsh. As a Society, we support the positive elements of the Government's strategy which will move us along this road of justice for all Welsh students. We support the moves to increase Welsh-medium schools in the second category and especially moves to ensure that every trainee-teacher receives an element of training in Welsh, and that pupils in English-medium schools also receive parts of their education in Welsh so that they learn to use the language rather than see it merely as a subject. No pupil should be deprived of this basic educational skill."Welsh-medium Education Strategy - Welsh Assembly Government Website