Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 3:52 pm on 23 September 2020.
Thank you very much. That was excellent, Mike, and I think that the questions are very fair too. Of course, what we do try to do to reach 1 million Welsh speakers is to ensure—. To reach that target, we want to ensure that more children receive their education through the medium of Welsh. So, around 20 per cent currently receive their education through the medium of Welsh, and we want that to get to 40 per cent. That's quite a major step and, of course, the way to do that is by starting with nursery provision, and that's why Mudiad Meithrin have opened more settings where there is an opportunity for children to come together to learn Welsh in areas where there is no such provision at the moment. But before that, 20 new Ti a Fi cylchoedd have been established throughout Wales, and they provide an opportunity for people just to step into the Welsh language and try it out before they send their children to those Welsh-medium nursery schools.
So, we try to encourage children to use the Welsh language, but, of course, once they go into Welsh-medium schools, we also have to ensure that they use the Welsh language socially. So, that's why we use initiatives such as the mentrau iaith to ensure that they have opportunities to practice the Welsh language once they're able to speak it.