Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 31 January 2018.
I’m sure you’ll understand the frustration, because hearing a Minister say that we’ll have to see what the situation is today, a full four and a half years after a report stated that action was urgently needed, is a cause of frustration. I do have to make that point.
Now, of course, it’s not possible to move forward meaningfully to share the target that I’m sure we share in terms of a million Welsh speakers and the role of the education system in that unless the appropriate workforce is in place to provide the necessary education. I will refer to the Aled Roberts review of Welsh in education strategic plans, which said quite clearly that,
'We must ask ourselves, what purpose is there to plan for substantial growth for Welsh-medium and bilingual education...without urgent decisions being made to train more new teachers who speak Welsh. This is particularly the case within the secondary sector.'
Now, we know that 6 per cent of the education workforce speak Welsh but don’t teach through the medium of Welsh. So, what is this Welsh Government going to do to bring that group of educators into play in this area? We also know that 80 per cent of students studying PGCE courses have come through the education system in Wales, and if they haven’t been part of bilingual education then they should have had 10 years of Welsh lessons. Okay, there are deficiencies in terms of Welsh as a second language, but there should be a foundation there to develop a qualified workforce in terms of Welsh-medium education. So, can I ask how you’re going to use and build on those linguistic skills and when will we see a Welsh-medium education workforce plan developed and implemented? Without it, we’ve no chance of reaching that million Welsh speakers.