Cymdeithas yr Iaith have called for all closures of Welsh-medium village schools to be halted until research has been carried out into the effect of closures during the last decade on the Welsh language and Welsh-speaking communities.

This comes as part of our response to Ceredigion's proposal to close Ysgol Llangynfelyn near Aberystywth, The statutory consultation period closed last night, and in their written response Cymdeithas said

"It states in the Language Impact Assesment " It should be noted that attempting to gauge the potential impact of school organisation on the Welsh language is a difficult undertaking.."
Yet Ceredigion Council go about closing schools, depriving communities without collecting objective evidence, and this is totally irresponsible. A number of Welsh-medium village schools have been closed in Ceredigion over the past 5 years, and in neighbouring Carmarthen before that.
It would be easy enough to look into how many pupils from these catchment areas have gone to designated schools and how many have gone, instead, to English medium schools. Research could easily be carried out to look at the academic performance of present pupils in the catchment area, in comparison with those that attended local village schools before that. It would be quite simple to measure the effect school closures have had on the housing market in these communities – are young families less likely to buy a house in these areas? But Ceredigion, like other counties, continue to close schools and risk a negative effect on the language and rural communities without doing such research. There should be a moratorium until research is carried out.”