Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Siân Gwenllian Siân Gwenllian Plaid Cymru 2:31, 20 June 2018

(Translated)

One way of dealing with prejudice is by allowing refugees to play an active part in communities and the workplaces around them. And to do that, of course, they have to be able to get fluency in both languages of our nation, both Welsh and English. Families from Syria who have been welcomed to my area have had an opportunity to make swift progress in acquiring language skills, and recently I had a conversation in Welsh with two young refugees, as well as hearing them speak English fluently, too. But doing away with the minority ethnic achievement grant, which was specific funding for responding to the needs of pupils from minority groups, is going to slow that process of teaching languages to refugees, and will make it very difficult for teachers to give specific attention to this area. Will you commit to try and convince the Cabinet Secretary for Education to reintroduce this grant? I raised this point yesterday and I didn’t get a response on it.