Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:07 pm on 28 January 2020.
Thank you very much.
It's a pleasure to present our report on the journey to a million Welsh speakers. We've been busy. As I say in the foreword to the annual report, it can feel like a lot of time has passed since we launched Cymraeg 2050, because it really has caught the imagination of people across Wales and beyond.
But, remember that only two years have passed since it was published, and that we're still in the early days. This is a period of laying the foundations but, despite that, you'll see signs of progress in relation to the early years, more Welsh-medium provision, and more people learning Welsh as adults, whether through the National Centre for Learning Welsh, or other means.
But, big changes call for taking big steps, and our work across a number of areas is making a difference. What we have in this report is a snapshot of a period in time—between April 2018 and March 2019. But, we have continued with the work and we've achieved a lot beyond the period in question. For instance, we've introduced regulations that, for the first time, set targets for every county in relation to their contribution to increasing Welsh-medium education, and the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (Wales) Regulations 2019 came into force on 1 January this year.
Increasing the number of teachers who are able to teach our children through the medium of Welsh is something we take seriously. In November, we conducted the first annual census of the school workforce to learn more about teachers' Welsh language skills across Wales. This supports programmes that already exist, such as initial teacher training and education programmes; the financial incentive, Iaith Athrawon Yfory; the Welsh language sabbatical scheme; work with the regional consortia; and the e-sgol project, which will support the availability of subjects and fair choice.
Making sure that pupils move with the Welsh language from one period of education to the next is also important. We've also agreed to allocate £145,000 in 2019-20 to encourage more learners to follow Welsh at A-level and at university.