Part of 5. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 1 July 2020.
Thank you very much, Suzy. This is something that we are highly aware of—that there are risks that people won't have the opportunity to practise their Welsh language skills, particularly if they have children in Welsh-medium education, and they will now have had three months without that opportunity to practise their Welsh. It's good to see that children have returned this week, and we have been clear that there are numerous resources available through Hwb in order to enable parents to help their children. In addition to that, we have ensured that there is software available, free of charge, which assists people to spell correctly, it assists with grammar and so on and so forth. So, we also hope that that will assist people.
In terms of funding, like every other department, we have had to make cuts in our budgets. One of the areas where we had to make those cuts was in the National Centre for Learning Welsh. Of course, it wasn't possible for the centre to provide lessons in the way that it usually would. It was impossible for people to attend classes, for example. But what we have seen is that people are undertaking those lessons online. And, to tell the truth, more people are likely to turn up to their classes online than they were to turn up to the physical classes. So, it is interesting to see whether change is afoot. And, of course, as you develop resources for working online, there is also an opportunity for us to rethink the way in which we provide those resources.
You asked about Mudiad Meithrin, well, we are keeping a very close eye on what is happening there, and that is an issue, of course, for the education Minister. And the immersion centres—it is a shame that they have been in a position where that immersion couldn't happen. But, of course, we hope now that, as we move forward to September, we will be able to reconsider that and put measures in place to ensure that there are opportunities to recommence these activities, particularly for those people who are eager to have Welsh-medium education but need that additional support.