2. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government’s targets for growth in Welsh medium education? OAQ(5)0040(EDU)[W]

We need to see a significant increase in the number of children and young people in Welsh-medium education if we are to achieve our ambitious target of a million speakers by 2050. The final version of the Welsh language strategy will include targets to measure outcomes and delivery.

I thank the Minister for that response, and I would agree with every word. It’s impossible to attain that target that we all want to see achieved without there being a significant increase in Welsh-medium education. But, to date, there’s been no link between the targets within the Welsh in education strategic plans at a local authority level and the national targets set by Government for growth in Welsh-medium education. Is it the Minister’s aspiration and desire to actually marry those two things and have one national target that would then be shared and disseminated at a local level? And what is he doing in the difficult yet important debates taking place now in communities that face the turning of English-medium education into Welsh-medium education, where that step forward, of course, will benefit both Welsh-medium and English-medium education in those communities?

I will maintain the spirit of agreement this afternoon by agreeing with the analysis in the question. It is important that we have targets that are reachable and which also allow us to reach our broader target on an all-Wales basis. I expect local authority WESPs to be presented by December this year, and those plans will show how local authorities expect to reach their targets during the next five years. I will certainly look at these and ensure that they are ambitious targets and that they help us reach our national targets. When we publish our Welsh language strategy in the spring of next year, there will be national targets and a strong link between the national targets and the targets of every local authority. So, yes, I do see that link. The link is vital and it will be a vital part of the plan for the future.

Will the Minister join me in congratulating the area of Neath Port Talbot, where we are seeing a growth in children wanting to go to Welsh-medium education schools? Will he also welcome the fact that Neath Port Talbot council is recognising this and building a new secondary Welsh-medium school on the old Sandfields Comprehensive School site? Will he also work with his Cabinet colleagues to ensure that transportation to those schools is secured so that families in the Valleys areas can access the school safely?

Yes, absolutely. I think Members across the Chamber will want to join together in welcoming the developments that we’re seeing, and developments in a constituency are certainly to be welcomed, as they are elsewhere. But, enabling children and young people to attend these educational institutions is absolutely essential. There’s no point opening doors if the students can’t reach there. So, we will be ensuring, and we will be working with Cabinet colleagues to ensure, that we have a comprehensive and holistic policy that provides a provision for Welsh-medium education and a growth in Welsh-medium education, but also which enables students to reach Welsh-medium education at whatever level that might be.

At the moment, the Welsh Government is investing in the region of £1.6 million in the sabbatical programme to enable teachers to develop their Welsh language skills. To date, the scheme has attracted fewer than 250 teachers. What was the target? Generally, is the cost of £6,400 per teacher good value for money, and has any one of those teachers moved to work in a Welsh-medium school?

The workforce development schemes have been very successful in the area of education, and we continue to invest in education to ensure that that success continues and that we can build on the foundations that we have. We have, as I was discussing with the Member in committee this morning, a budget agreement, and we will continue to discuss how we implement the budget agreement in order to develop Welsh for adults and also to develop Welsh in the workforce, including the education workforce, where we expect to see an increase in the provision of education, and that means ensuring that we have enough teachers who can teach through the medium of Welsh.