At 9am this morning Cymdeithas yr Iaith delivered to Ceredigion Council Offices the first of a fleet on new steamrollers which will be seen throughout the county and other parts of Wales in the coming months. Cymdeithas Education spokesperson (Ffred Ffransis) and Dyfed Field Officer (Bethan Williams) visited the Council's Education Offices in Felinfach to present the first copy of this poster (PDF) bearing the words (translated) "No surrender to the pressure for Area Schools - there's more than one option"! These posters will now be put up all over rural Ceredigion by Society members to warn communities of Council plans to steamroller over any opposition to their scheme to set up large centralised Area Schools closing a dozen Welsh-medium Village Schools.Cymdeithas expect the Council to announce in the next couple of weeks its plan to establish centralised Area Schools in Tregaron and Llandysul sacrificing a dozen Village Schools in the process including a number which are thriving with over 50 pupils and are focal points for their communities. The new schools would cater for all pupils from 3-19 years and are intended to create units which are large enough to be viable to offer a wider range of subjects for 14-19 year old students.

Ffred Ffransis said:"It is disgraceful that the fate of small children's education - in the all-important Foundation Stage - is being decided according to the curricular needs of teenage students. The youngest children and their village communities are being offered as sacrificial lambs to the Assembly Government in a belief that this is the only way to gain the funding for the developments in education for the 14-19 years age group. The Council will claim savings of £200,000 in both areas, but this is on the assumption that village children from 5 years old are to be herded on to school buses without any escorts and that free transport will be denied to all except those who have a statutory right - unlike the current discretionary policy."DISHONEST CONSULTATIONThe Council will then announce a period of consultation over these plans. But Mr Ffransis said:"The whole consultation process will be basically dishonest. The Council will claim that all options are open, but it is only the one option of Area Schools which has received Officers' detailed attention and costing, and the Director has told meetings of Governors that no other options are possible. This is a steamroller approach to consultation. There are in fact many options. A number of the Village Schools potentially under threat are perfectly viable, especially with an energetic strategy of community use of their resources. Another option is to take advantage of the Assembly's new regulations to establish a formal Federation between the Secondary School and the surrounding Village Primary Schools so as to form the sort of strong educational unit envisaged by the Council without depriving the children and their communities of their schools. It is disgraceful that the Council has given no officer-time whatsoever to considering these alternative models and is intent on steamrollering over any opposition. The children's education and their communities are being sacrificed without even researching options."MEETING WITH THE EDUCATION MINISTERCymdeithas say that there is a danger of this same steamroller approach being adopted also in other counties. Gwynedd will be reviewing educational provision in Meirionydd and Ynys Mon are currently offering only very limited options to local communities regarding the future of their schools. The Education Minister, Jane Hutt, has agree to meet Cymdeithas yr Iaith next month (May 18th) to discuss these concerns. Mr Ffransis said:"We shall be asking the Minister to confirm or otherwise claims by officers in Ceredigion and others that her department is unwilling to fund any developments other than Area Schools. We shall be asking her what was the point of publishing all the new options if only Area Schools are to be accepted. This steamroller approach brings the whole consultation processes into disrepute. At this meeting, we shall hopefully get to the bottom of where the responsibility lies."