Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education — Postponed from 8 November – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 15 November 2017.
These are questions to Eluned Morgan. First of all, I welcome the full commitment that you made yesterday during the debate on the Welsh Language Commissioner’s annual report to continue with the Government’s aim of reaching a million Welsh speakers by 2050, and Plaid Cymru, of course, is fully supportive of that target. The strategy ‘Cymraeg 2050’ puts education centrally to your vision in order to reach that million. You also mentioned this yesterday.
But in looking at the Welsh-medium education strategy published in 2010, there was a target at that time of ensuring that 30 per cent of children at seven years old receive their education through the medium of Welsh by 2020. In the ‘Cymraeg 2050’ strategy, that target has been reduced to 24 per cent by 2021, and there is no intention of attaining that old target of 30 per cent by 2031.
Most of these new Welsh speakers will be created through the education system, but there’ll only be an increase of 110,000 Welsh speakers through the Welsh Government’s strategy over the next 33 years as compared with the 400,000 more additional Welsh speakers that are needed if we are to reach that target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
So, where will these 290,000 additional Welsh speakers come from?