Fears over school consultation
WELSH language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg has complained that Carmarthenshire Council officers have not started the ball rolling to discuss the future of village schools over the next four months.
Campaigners want to engage with local communities regarding the future of village schools.
Carmarthenshire Council had set a six-week consultation period starting in January on proposals for different schools in the area as part of its legal responsibility to review the number and type of schools there are across the county.
However, at an executive board meeting last month councillors decided to extend the consultation until Friday, July 16, in response to the Wales Education Minister’s revised guidelines about consultations during a pandemic.
Among the consultations are proposals to review primary education provision at the Mynyddygarreg and Gwenllian schools in the Kidwelly area, along with plans to review primary education provision in Blaenau and Llandybie near Ammanford.
In expanding the consultation period, Carmarthenshire Council’s executive board member with responsibility for education, Cllr Glynog Davies, stated that this would give time for alternatives to be properly discussed and that no decisions had been taken on the way forward, and this was publicly emphasised by other board members.
However, Cymdeithas yr Iaith said it understood the council’s education officers had rejected out of hand a detailed business plan put forward by governors of Ysgol Mynyddygarreg, which would see the school moving forward in federation with Ysgol Gwenllian, Kidwelly, with investment in both locations.
On behalf of the Carmarthen region of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, spokesman Ffred Ffransis said: “We know that the governors responded positively to the consultation and put forward detailed proposals whereby the Mynyddygarreg rural campus and the facilities on the Kidwelly urban site would complement each other, and the upgrade at Mynyddygarreg would cost just 5% of the total investment for the area, 66% of which would be paid by central government.
“These proposals would also have provided sufficient extra places, and a choice, for Welsh-medium education in the area.”
Mr Ffransis continued: “We understand that officers rejected out of hand at this one meeting any change to their current proposal to close the school, and that the fourmonth period until midjuly will be wasted both for the anxious parents at Mynyddygarreg and for Ysgol Gwenllian, who are waiting even longer for their new building, which would already have been under construction were it not for the stubborn desire to close Mynyddygarreg as part of the proposal.
“We understand that councillors feel that it would not now be right to make public statements during a pre-election period, but we have called on them to instruct officers to return to discuss constructively with governors their proposals.
“A further disturbing aspect of these discussions is that closing Ysgol Mynyddygarreg would mean that only a minority of school places in the whole area would be in Welsh-medium education.
“Apparently, officers sought to justify this by saying that the new curriculum would mean that the local English-medium school would in time start using some Welsh as a medium of education.
“That is a dangerous argument which could be used all over the county, and Wales, to stop the development of Welshmedium education.
“The curriculum is developing so that no pupil in Wales should be disadvantaged by not being able to communicate at all in Welsh, but that was never intended as an argument to undermine Welsh-medium education so that pupils were fully fluent in both languages.”
In response Carmarthenshire Council director of education Gareth Morgans said: “We were grateful of the opportunity to hold further discussions with the governing body, and the business plan they presented will be included as a response to the consultation.
“No decisions will be taken by the executive board until the consultation has concluded and feedback has been discussed. We continue to urge anyone with a view to submit their feedback to us as part of the consultation.”