Cymdeithas yr Iaith are claiming that a questionaire sent by Carmarthenshire Council to parents is "misleading" and that any results will be therefore "meaningless". It appears that the Council has followed Assembly Government wording in attempting to define possible linguistic categories for secondary schools, but these are very confusing.During the past week, the Council has sent the questionnaire to parents of Primary school children in Dinefwr and the Gwendraeth Valley in attempt to gauge opinion as to the linguistic status of 3 new secondary schools to be established following re-organisation.Three options are given viz Category 1 (Welsh-medium school) and categories 2A and 2B which are both misleadingly called "bilingual schools". Category 2A is indeed a bilingual school, but Cymdeithas believe that it is stretching the truth to the breaking-point to describe Category 2B as a "bilingual school". Not only is it impossible to receive a full Welsh-medium education, but it is possible to avoid Welsh as a medium of education, and teachers and pupils will not have to be able to communicate in Welsh. Reading the first words of the description of Category 2B that "80% of subjects will be taught in Welsh", parents might well think that this is a school such as Maes-yr-yrfa. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, the only guarantee given is of the availability of such subjects in Welsh. Had one chosen the words that "100% of the subjects will be taught in English" (i.e. available in English) then a totally different impression would be created for parents.

A pupil can enter such a school completely non-Welsh-speaking, receive all his education (besides Welsh as a subject) in English and leave school still not bilingual. Such a school would not have a Welsh ethos, and the language would be weakened. It would be a massive backward step for the Gwendraeth Valleys where all primary schools are welsh-medium and a large majority of pupils attending the Welsh-medium secondary school. If a Category 2B school replaced Ysgol Maes-yr-yrfa, Carmarthenshire would be the first county in Wales to downgrade a Welsh-medium school.Cymdeithas Chair in Carmarthen, Sioned Elin, who herself has 4 primary-age children said:"This questionnaire is misleading, and any parents who feel they have been misled should demand a new form. Let's deal in facts. It's a fact that more than three times the number of parents in Cwm Gwendraeth choose a Category 2A bilingual school such as Maes-yr-yrfa than Ysgol y Gwendraeth. It's a fact that Maes-yr-yrfa has grown and succeeded academically. Closing such a successful school would be a massive step back for the Welsh language and for educational standards. We must ensure that no children in Cwm Gwendraeth are deprived of the ability to communicate in Welsh and they should be fluent when leaving school. That can only happen in a Category 1 or 2A school."