High quality Welsh lessons vital for all

ATTITUDES to, and provision of, Welsh medium education have come a long way since people threw stones at buses taking pupils to lessons at Cardiff’s first Welsh language secondary school. But more still needs to be done. Today’s four-year plan from the Welsh Government, setting out how it aims to develop Welsh language and Welsh medium teaching, is to be welcomed.

Reaching a target of one million speakers by 2050 is going to be no easy task and schools cannot do all the work, although they are key.

The uproar when a local council said it was closing a village school’s English-medium stream encapsulated a minority, but nevertheless troublesome, view that the Welsh language is somehow harmful.

There are those who still feel Welsh language education is divisive, even though they may no longer throw stones at vehicles taking schoolchildren to class.

We dismiss critics of Welsh medium education and the promotion of the Welsh language at our peril. They are wrong, but a way must be found to bring them on board or a section of society will feel disenfranchised and set apart.

Whether or not that is through their own fault is irrelevant.

Schools, politicians, policy makers and society need to find a way to ensure the Welsh language is viewed as an undeniably good thing, in the same way that few people would deny it is good to speak any other language apart from English.

How often do you hear anyone suggest to a bilingual English and French speaker that having fluency in two languages is a bad thing that must have negatively affected their education?

Today’s report highlights how Welsh in English-medium schools is inconsistent and too often leads to low attainment. This has been said in some circles for a long time and action is long overdue.

The report doesn’t name and shame schools, but doubtless some where pupils are not doing well enough in Welsh are in areas where children are already disadvantaged economically or socially.

Ensuring all students leave school being confident using Welsh in any situation, would not only help set us on course for one million fluent speakers by 2050, but would also go some way to narrowing Wales’ attainment, poverty and social inclusion gap.

If speaking Welsh helps people get well-paid jobs, we must ensure all our young people have the best opportunities to learn and speak it in and out of school. We would expect no less in other essentials like English and maths,

The fact that demand for Welsh medium education is growing demonstrates that people realise its positive potential.

Attitudes have changed and now we must use the momentum gathered in recent years to push on and make Wales a genuinely bi-lingual nation.

The alternative is unthinkable and divisive both economically and socially. Now is the time to lay remaining prejudices to rest.