I don't want to see division

This column appeared in the Llanelli Herald on 20th January 2016


From September 1st children in Llangennech who do not want a Welsh medium education will have to go outside their village to get it.

The move is justified by the Council because the last census showed a decline in the number of Welsh speakers in Carmarthenshire, and is part of the measures needed to achieve the Welsh Government’s target of doubling the number of Welsh speakers to 1 million by 2050.

Whilst Carmarthenshire Councillors were voting to set aside the objections from 757 people in Llangennech I was in the Senedd scrutinizing the Minister for the Welsh Language, Alun Davies, on the way Councils are converting schools like Llanegennech from Dual-Stream schools, where English and Welsh are taught side by side, into Welsh medium schools.

“We need to take great care in the way we deal with it” the Minister told me.  He and I share the ambition to ensure that all 16 year-olds are able to speak Welsh by the time they leave school, and continue to use it in everyday life. And we both want to maintain the goodwill that there has been towards the Welsh language.

I went to school in a primary much like Llanegennech, and I’ve always admired the way the children from different language backgrounds are educated together, and the way in which children who are not taught in Welsh are nonetheless exposed to the language everyday. This is in stark contrast to most primary schools where Heads struggle to recruit teachers and support staff who can speak Welsh. Children are often taught by adults who themselves not able to speak Welsh, and often leave school barely able to speak the language.

Carmarthenshire plans to turn all Dual-Stream schools into Welsh medium schools over the coming years. Where there are easily accessible English medium schools nearby this may not attract much comment, but in villages like Llanegennech there’s a risk that approach may be similarly divisive.  I don’t want to see that.

“We need different approaches in different areas” Alun Davies told the Assembly’s Culture and Welsh Language Committee this week. “I hope we can move away from negative debates and take time to reflect. Does a bilingual school deliver bilingual people? If not, why not? Let's have that debate without negativity” Alun Davies added.

I have deliberately not tried to use this issue to score points against the Plaid Cymru led Council. I do however, disagree with their approach. Rather than creating ever more Welsh medium schools I would prefer to focus on improving the quality of Welsh teaching for children who are not currently well served, and to run English medium schools into bilingual ones.

The Welsh Government will be looking at the best way of achieving its ambition of doubling the number of Welsh speakers by 2050, and I hope that the need to avoid the division we have seen in Llanegennech can be avoided.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dysgu gwersi

Image
A note to members of the Llanelli constituency Labour Party There has been a big disagreement within Welsh Labour. There has not been a ‘witch-hunt’ against Vaughan Gething, but there has been a genuine conflict of values. Now there is an appetite to quickly move on, but I think there’s a real danger that in shutting down discussion we will neither understand nor learn the lessons of what has happened.  As uncomfortable as it will be I think we need proper debate about the future direction of Welsh Labour. Circling the wagons around a ‘unity candidate’ may bring some short-term relief, but it will do nothing to address the fundamental need to renew in office. I’ve not given any interview and don’t intent to, but as a way of making sense of it all I’ve written this assessment which looks at what should happen now and an analysis of how we got to this position.  These are offered in the spirit of honest debate and not point-scoring. Edrych ymlaen We’re in a pickle. After 25 year...
Read more

Transport for Wales 2.0

Image
Speech to Transport for Wales senior management at Llys Cadwyn, TfW HQ, in Pontypridd on 6th February 2024 Diolch am y croeso a y cyfle. James Price and I meet regularly, and sometimes it feels like we’re in charge. But it really is a privilege to be in the same room as the people who actually do run transport in Wales. And it’s so nice to see people together. I’m still adjusting to meeting people in the flesh who I’m used to seeing online; I still can’t believe how short everyone is when I meet them! Apart from the ones I already knew were short, obviously (you know who you are). The worst thing about those mass Teams calls is that I can’t see people’s reactions to what I’m saying – to confirm that they are drifting off.  So at least I’ll know for sure today that I am boring you – the people in the room at least. It won’t stop me, but it gets rid of the uncertainty. I know we’ve priced-in that politicians' speeches will be insincere, but I really do mean what I say. And I ...
Read more

Don't forget the wiring

Image
The Wales Transport Strategy published in 2021 put modal shift at the heart of our policies. For the first time, we’ve set a target on increasing the number of trips made by sustainable modes of transport from 32% to 45% by 2040. Grand declarations are important to signal system change. However, as we've seen in the past, transport strategies often say all the right things in the narrative but the delivery mechanisms are programmed to deliver business-as-usual. In spite of the new targets the bible for highway engineers, the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges , still prioritises traffic flow; the bible for economists and finance officials, the UK Treasury Green Book, still insists on monetising notional journey time savings when it comes to transport investments; rather than reduce speeds to save lives, orthodoxy suggests we upgrade highway design to increase capacity and allow faster speeds under the guise of road safety.  Unless the system wiring is reconfigured to delive...
Read more