Members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg will be holding a meeting at 12.30pm today with officials at the National Assembly of Wales. At the meetings the matters under discussion will include the need for a New Welsh Language Act and the future of village schools. Cymdeithas has recieved confirmation that the meetings will go ahead even though Ministers will not be present.

At the meeting today will be Cymdeithas Chair Hywel Griffiths ,Rhun Emlyn, (Leader of the Language Act Campaign Group) Ffred Ffransis and Aled Davies (members of the Society's Education Campaign Group) and a non-Welsh-speaking parent-governor Mr Matt Dix. Mr Dix is Vice-Chair of the Governors of Ysgol Mynyddcerrig which is to close tomorrow, and his children have received an excellent education and use Welsh fluently as a natural medium through attending the local Welsh-medium village school.Ffred Ffransis commented:"We have invited Mr Dix to join us so that the officials can receive personal testimony to the value of village schools both educationally in providing for social cohesion, and the profound sense of loss when they close. For years the Assembly Government and the Local Authorities have been blaming each other for the demise of Village Schools. We shall be focusing the attention of the officials on the 3 undisputed areas of responsibility of the Assembly Government.""It is WAG which sets the guidelines on Schools Closures – guidelines which are never followed such as the need for Impact Studies on the Language and Community Life, and a thorough investigation of all alternatives. It is WAG who have threatened LEA's that they will not receive funding for School Improvements under the revised SBIG grants from 2010 unless they have the euphemistically named 'rationalisation' plans in place. It is WAG who make the whole concept of developing community use of schools unviable by the total separation - in funding, strategy and departments - between Education and Community Development."