Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 14 July 2021.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:37, 14 July 2021

(Translated)

Well, in the context of the first question in terms of the target that Siân Gwenllian mentioned, I think the target you're referring to is year 2 children who are assessed through the medium of Welsh as a first language, and the target was 24 per cent. The actual attainment was 22.8 per cent, which is a little short of the target of 24 per cent. Although we haven't met that target by this year, there are very encouraging signs that, I'm sure, she will welcome in terms of the younger cohort, where 23.8 per cent of reception class children are being taught through the medium of Welsh. So, that's a very encouraging sign for the future, and one of the things that is very clear, as I'm sure she's aware, is that the investment in the cylchoedd meithrin and the Mudiad Meithrin means that we can increase the numbers going through the Welsh-medium education system. The transfer from one to the other is about 90 per cent, so that is very encouraging. She will have seen commitments in the work programme to expand the numbers of cylchoedd, and we exceeded the target in the last Senedd in terms of new numbers of cylchoedd. So, that's very positive as well. 

In terms of the workforce, certainly we need to increase the numbers coming in to teach through the medium of Welsh, or to learn through the medium of Welsh, and that challenge is known to us all. There are successful interventions that have seen progress, but we need to go further than that.

And in terms of the strategic plans that local governments are providing for the next decade, that is, over the next 10 years, we will be working with stakeholders such as the Education Workforce Council, CYDAG and the commissioner and so forth to try and ensure that we also have a plan to recruit enough staff over the same period.