3. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's plans to expand Welsh-medium education provision in the Merthyr Tydfil area? OQ55422

Thank you, Delyth, for the question.

Capital investment of £1.83 million has been earmarked to expand Welsh-medium education provision in Merthyr Tydfil. We are meeting the full costs of these projects to make best use of the funding available. The authority has also received £661,000 from the reducing infant class size grant, also to support Welsh-medium education.

Thank you for that response, Minister. Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg have been in touch with me on their campaign to tackle the lack of Welsh-medium provision in the area. At the moment, there are only two primary schools and no secondary school at all, which is utterly unfair on the children in the area. RhAG want to see a Welsh-medium secondary school established, as well as an additional primary school. Since they started their campaign less than a year ago, they have made large steps forward. Discussions with the council on opening a new primary school have been positive. The Welsh-medium education forum has met virtually during the lockdown, and plans are in place to produce material to promote Welsh-medium education among parents, as well as to organise events. So, Minister, will you join with me in congratulating RhAG on their excellent work to date, as well as Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council for showing enthusiasm in assisting the campaign? Can you give me an assurance that you, as Minister for Education, will provide all possible support in order to enable RhAG and the council to open Welsh-medium schools in Merthyr?

Thank you, Delyth. As I said in my answer to your first question, the Welsh Government is funding fully the projects that the Member will be familiar with. The grant of £1.83 million will support the reconfiguration of Ysgol Rhyd-y-grug to accommodate two additional classrooms and to increase nursery and pre-nursery provision. And the grant will also fund a new Welsh-medium primary school with a capacity for 210 pupils, also providing an early years and early childcare location through the medium of Welsh. Also, the reducing infant class sizes grant has been allocated to Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Santes Tudful to provide a stand-alone extension to two additional classrooms, including new lobby and toilet facilities also, and the old demountable accommodation will be removed to create an external play area to support the foundation phase.

So, clearly, the capital grants that Welsh Government are able to give Merthyr Tydfil are really going to make a difference, and I'm grateful to all of those campaigning within Merthyr and the council for engaging so positively with our capital programme to make these projects available, and I'm sure, as we have seen from other areas in Wales, once they are available, parents will make a very positive choice to choose Welsh-medium education for their children.

Minister, we must ensure that our ambitious Welsh language targets in Merthyr Tydfil and across Wales are accomplished, and it's important that the benefit of Welsh-medium education is given to all children in all communities. May I, therefore, ask whether the Minister will give Bridgend council further support, as important land developments have fallen through and impacted their plans? It's possible that they might need a bit more support to attain the ambitious targets in Bridgend, while working also with groups such as Bridgend RhAG.

Thank you, Huw, for that. Can I assure Members that we have developed a dashboard to give an overview of the situation across all local authorities following COVID-19, and the dashboard highlights that local authorities are on track to meet their Welsh in education strategic plan targets. Clearly, if there are concerns about the ability of an individual local authority to meet their targets contained within their WESP, then our officials will want to have a conversation with them to understand what the barriers are to achieving the goals that have been set out in those plans.