5. Statement by the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 10 June 2020.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:01, 10 June 2020

Diolch yn fawr, Vikki. I have very regular meetings with the education Minister, and obviously have been very aware of the need to ensure that there are opportunities, in particular for those pupils who come from non-Welsh-speaking homes to be able to practice their Welsh, to be able to get their hands on resources that would be beneficial to them in terms of accessing materials that may be of use to them. The Hwb support is very, very extensive—what's available in terms of resources to help people is there. But of course that is not helpful, as you say, if there is a digital exclusion element, and that's why I know that the education Minister has put additional resources in specifically to target those children who perhaps previously were not able to access online resources. But I'm glad to see that that has happened.

Certainly, in terms of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, yes, I think that is a very constructive way of hopefully incentivising people to do more of their course through the medium of Welsh—not necessarily the entirety of their course, but we are certainly hoping that this is going to help, particularly in vocational training areas. Yes, there has been some publicity about this this week, so that awareness, I hope, has been raised, but there needs to be an effort now by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to target that at the students who would be most likely to benefit. Of course, all of this is much more difficult during lockdown—identifying people—but I think a lot of this work can be done online, and certainly most of the people who would benefit from that are people who spend half of their lives, I think, on their little mobile phones. So there is a very clear way to be able to get to them and spread that news.