A crowd of young pirates will be making their way to the Ceredigion Council Pavilion as Cymdeithas yr Iaith take the battle for the future of Welsh-medium Village schools to the Urdd Eisteddfod field today (Monday May 31st).Cymdeithas will potray Ceredigion Council officials as one-eyed pirates who have built their own expensive new safe havens in Aberystwyth and Aberaeron, with new council offices, and are now raiding the rural communities to steal local people's treasures, the village schools.Cymdeithas Dyfed organiser, Angharad Clwyd, explained:"Children are dressing up as one-eyed pirates to protest against the Ceredigion officers can see one answer only by closing as many as possible of our village schools and centralising education. This is a threat to at least 15 Welsh-medium village schools in Ceredigion and part of a problem which could threaten Welsh-speaking communities throughout our country."

Cymdeithas campaigner Ffred Fransis added:"The council's pirates don't see a problem spending lots of money on new luxurious offices for themselves in Aberystwyth. But, at the same time, they argue that it's absolutely essential to save a tiny bit of money by closing village schools. That's their stupid bureaucratic thinking. It's time they walked the plank!""Instead, councils should see schools as community assets and a means of regeneration A recent report by Cambridge Policy Consultants suggested that closing these schools saves little or no money in the education budget. So it's very irresponsible for authorities like Ceredigion council to consider closing a lot of small schools."There will be a pirate ship and pirate games for the children at the Cymdeithas unit on the Eisteddfod field and children's author Angharad Tomos will be reading pirate stories. Protestors will go over to the Ceredigion Pavilion to claim back their treasures.