Cymdeithas yr Iaith has welcomed an interim statement issued today by Prof Graham Donadson which lists the basic principles for a new curriculum for Wales. Cymdeithas say that these principles reinforce the case for ensuring that the curriculum gives every pupil the basic educational skill of being able to communicate in both Welsh and English.

In a letter to Education Minister Huw Lewis, Prof Donaldson, who was commissioned by the Government to draw up recommendations for a new curriculum for Wales. lists the basic principles which should underpin the curriculum.

In response Cymdeithas Education spokesperson Ffred Ffransis said: "In order to ensure that the curriculum is ‘authentic’ and ‘inclusive’ and ‘unifying’ - 3 of the basic principles - the curriculum should enable every pupil to be able to work and communicate in both Welsh and English so that no pupil should be disadvantaged. To achieve this, the new curriculum must banish for ever the derogatory term ‘Welsh as a Second Language’ and instead implement the recommendations of Prof Sioned Davies's report ‘One Language for All’. The principle of "empowerment" requires that the curriculum should also give pupils a good knowledge of how matters such as the Planning System work, and an ability to analyse issues such as unemployment and patterns of immigration and outward migration together with an understanding as to how they can influence public policy. The curriculum can be the key to the new democracy in Wales"