CYDAG

REVIEW OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE IN TRAINING AND EDUCATION

EVIDENCE TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES’ EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING COMMITTEE

One of the main themes in Welsh education at present is the linguistic shift. We would like to refer to two aspects of the shift which are creating a paradox, a worrying paradox in terms of the future of the Welsh language.On the positive side, over the last fifty years, significant progress has been seen in the number of Welsh and bilingual schools, and of course, the number of pupils taught mainly through the medium of Welsh. You will see from the WJEC’s annual statistics that the number of subjects examined through Welsh medium external examinations is also increasing.The main pattern seen at early secondary schools in Flint and Wrexham was approximately half the subjects being taught through the medium of Welsh and approximately half in English. When Rhydfelen opened in 1962, every subject apart from Mathematics and Science was taught through the medium of Welsh. Ysgol Cwm Rhymni in Bargoed was established in 1981 as the first secondary school teaching every subject through the medium of Welsh. It was also the first school where nearly all pupils came from non-Welsh speaking homes, 95% of them.A number of new schools followed in its footsteps, each one located in the southeast. Now, the remainder of schools in the southeast have turned or are in the process of turning to teaching every subject mainly through the medium of Welsh.It is in the western areas that we see the paradox: secondary schools are eager to teach every subject through the medium of Welsh, but many parents and teachers are concerned and hesitant. As an association, our belief is that the Welsh language will survive, but under certain conditions: for example, it must be a lively, dynamic, evolving language for every aspect of life.At the same time as the language is thriving in the east, it is decaying in the west, especially in terms of the decrease in the numbers of people who speak Welsh naturally in their communities. In the west, a significant loss is also being seen in the number of pupils who are giving up the Welsh language as a medium as they move from primary to secondary school. We do not believe that the energy and personal sacrifices which have been evident in eastern parts of our country can be relived in the west, as a country needs a critical mass of speakers in order for the minority language to survive.We do not therefore believe that the language battle has been won, and we suggest the following strategy for ensuring victory. We have summarised our ideas under six themes:

1. Implement equal opportunities
2. Strengthen and develop successes
3. Provide human and methodological resources
4. Rationalise the present provision
5. Extend horizons
6. Ensure funding in order to survive an emergency

1. Implement equal opportunities

• Ensure equal opportunities for the Welsh language, whether it is a subject on the curriculum, a teaching medium or a medium of daily communication for all communities in Wales
• Ensure the provision of Welsh nursery education throughout Wales; that is, respond to the increasing demand for it and get rid of the existing unequal provision seen in some areas at present: only English medium provision available
• Ensure equal opportunities in terms of provision, whether buildings, teaching resources, supportive documentation or instruments of assessment
• Ensure agreement between ACCAC and the examination boards that examinations for each subject and vocational area should be held through the medium of Welsh, thereby avoiding the annual battle by schools for the basic rights of pupils, teachers and parents in Wales.

2. Strengthen and develop successes

• Maintain Welsh as a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum and develop planning and assessment models on linguistic continuum.
• Strengthen legislation in order to give real power to a Language Act, which insists that Local Councils implement their Welsh Education schemes. At present, a Council can argue that their finances did not allow them to act. We believe that this is unacceptable.
• Promote progression and continuity in the Further and Higher Education sector for students who have received their secondary education through the medium of Welsh, and endeavour to integrate fluent Welsh speaking students with good learners who received secondary education either fully or mainly through the medium of English.
• Improve the standard of courses and arrangements for the transfer of Welsh speaking secondary school teachers from English medium schools to Welsh medium schools
• Further promotion of language initiatives
• Further promotion of Welsh for Adults

3. Provide human and methodological resources

• Work with the General Teaching Council for Wales in order to improve the supply of teachers - we believe that we are facing a crisis. For example, in 1999-2000, 105 Welsh speaking students received secondary school Graduate Certificate of Education training. 37 of these were for the subject of Welsh. Only 68 remained for the whole range of subjects in Welsh bilingual/secondary schools in Wales, slightly higher than one teacher for each of the 52 schools who teach through the medium of Welsh.
• There were no students in Physics, Business Studies or Design and Technology. Although there were nine for Religious Education, there is a lack of experience in the area: for example, one Welsh school in the valleys recently advertised five times for a Head for the Religious Education Department.
• The Teaching Council’s recent review on the supply of teachers did not provide a section for the Welsh medium, a big mistake in our opinion.
• Increase Welsh medium teaching materials across the age range, ability and types of resources. As well as this, we believe that there is a need to reform ACCAC’s mechanisms in order to accelerate the processes of identifying needs, editing and printing. [See CYDAG’s response to The Learning Country, par.2.10]
• Urgent development of Information Technology resources: IT is a fast growing industry, and with little software available in Welsh, the wrong image could be developed by suggesting that it is not a language for the new century. Substantial investment is needed in software development.

4. Rationalise the present provision

• Consider rationalising the education services in a small country: less councils and Local Education Authorities, evaluating the role of bodies such as ACCAC, WJEC, BIG and ESTYN. We believe that we have the talent required to fulfil the needs of Wales, but that there is an overlap in the responsibilities of different bodies. This is a waste of scarce human resources.
• Central preparation of working plans for extending the Welsh medium provision which could ignore local council boundaries. The growth of Welsh schools can be hindered by local difficulties as capital projects are considered by local councils. We believe that funding should be centrally designated for the purpose of extending the network of Welsh schools.
• Develop a strategy in conjunction with ELWa for lifelong learning and teaching, taking care that tactics of co-operation and rationalisation and distance learning agree with a comprehensive education promotion strategy for pupils and students.
• Adopt a brokership or national service to support Welsh medium teachers on the classroom floor. At present, many teachers from Welsh medium schools do not receive language support.

5. Extending horizons

• Central guidance in terms of developing Welsh education, ensuring that short term, medium term and long term developments support each other and are co-ordinated.
• Central organisation of a study and evaluation of patterns in bilingual schools in other countries.
• Ensure effective publicity which benefits bilingualism and multi-lingualism, and develops the image that bilingualism, rather than monolingualism is the world wide norm.
• Create a linguistic think-tank which has a national status of the highest order. The idea is a collection of thinkers without the traps of national or financial statute, but who are long-term forward-planners. Derivations from this group could lead to a co-ordinated way of thinking, co-ordinated planning and co-ordinated action. Numerous educationalists and politicians from countries across the world already visit us to see how we work in Welsh schools. We should build upon this early success.
• Create theoretical models for teaching Welsh to latecomers, and subsequently trial the model in a small number of schools. For example, working on a language immersion model for the beginning of Year 6, before transferring to a Welsh secondary school the following year.
• Establish an important department, possibly within the University, modelled on the Académie française, in order to coin technical terms and everyday vocabulary, and circulate them through electronic and paper methods. A small team of academics in Bangor are working in this area, and that is a promising start; the challenge deserves further resources.

6. Ensure funding in order to survive an emergency

• Set long term plans within budgetary parametres, in order to promote realistic, value for money development, and give headteachers and Governors and the Local Councils a better opportunity to concentrate more on standards of learning and teaching.
• Make the budgetary system transparent, in order to avoid wasting intellectual resources arguing about the matter.
• Consider substantially increasing teachers’ basic salary in order to avoid the present staffing crisis. Examples of mis-matches hide uncomfortable statistics for Welsh schools at present. That is, the statistic showing the number of unfilled posts does not provide the correct picture.
• Consider offering a capital allowance for teachers on the same pattern as London and the southeast of England, as house prices in Cardiff are amongst the fastest growing in the UK.
• Substantially increase the expenditure on education in Wales.

ConclusionWe believe that there is a need for development on several fronts at the same time: the great vision, the language continuum, the different models, the resources, and the appropriate funding. Development will often be hindered by the need to prioritise. Ignoring any one of the steps we have noted would be a wasted way forward, as they are all co-dependent.In our opinion, the Welsh language, although thriving, is also in crisis. And that is the paradox.We cannot rest on our laurels.We attach a copy of the Association’s response to the Document The Learning Country. We would like you to refer to Section 3, Equal Opportunity, and Section 4, Co-operation.WAG - The future of the Welsh language