Dyfodol i’r Iaith has expressed concern about a proposal that would make it more difficult to keep an eye on local authorities’ performance in relation to developing Welsh medium education in their areas.

The consultation document, The Education (Amendments Relating to Teacher Assessment Information) (Wales) Regulations 2018 proposes that information on the language of education assessments does not appear on the StatsWales website. This would force those who wish to find this data to scan individual reports or request the information through the Freedom of Information process.

Heini Gruffudd, Dyfodol’s Chair said:

“ Extending Welsh-medium education is essential if we are to ensure growth for the language. We must insist on solid structures to set targets and monitor all aspects of the work, and it goes without saying that it is also essential that all these processes have to be transparent and accessible. We agree with Statiaith, that this proposal would be very damaging; particularly as working towards growth is so necessary in education, and the targets set by the Government’s own Welsh Language Strategy are so challenging.

We recently had a very useful and positive meeting with Eluned Morgan, the new Welsh Language Minister. The main theme of our discussion was the need for a new body to promote the language.

We believe that it is essential to redress the balance towards the promotion of the Welsh language; to create more opportunities to use the language, and encourage individuals to speak it from day to day. We must of course continue to strengthen and make more flexible the enforcement element, but without extending the work to promotion, there is no hope of seeing a significant growth in the use of the Welsh language.

If we are to provide a firm foundation for this challenging work, we believe that a powerful arms’-length body has to be established to give leadership and co-ordinate all the various efforts. We have produced a bilingual leaflet outlining our opinions and vision, and it can be accessed by following the link below:

Arm’s-length Body for the Welsh Language

We also published a bilingual paper and we distributed copies to the Minister and all Assembly Members. You can read our paper using the link below:

Paper in support to establish and arm’s length Public Body for the Welsh Language