4. Will the Minister make a statement on the future of Welsh-medium education in South Wales East? OQ57151

Demand for Welsh-medium education in South Wales East remains high. More than £26 million of capital funding is being invested in the region, with five new Welsh-medium schools as well as childcare provision. A further package of £30 million in capital and £2.2 million in grant funding to support Welsh immersion schemes has been made available across Wales.

Thank you, Minister. Plaid Cymru, of course, welcomes the fact that there will be a new Welsh-medium primary opening in Merthyr next September. We also support plans to open a Welsh-medium primary school in Tredegar in 2023. I would like to thank Rhieni dros Addysg Gymraeg and local authorities for their work in progressing this, and the Government for providing the resources.

Many other communities need primary schools, Minister, but my question is on a secondary school. It's a cause of sadness and social and linguistic inequality that there is no secondary Welsh-medium provision in the counties of Merthyr, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire. That means no provision of a Welsh-medium secondary school in 50 per cent of counties in my region. So, where are those children who get that Welsh-medium primary education to go to develop their language skills further and continue to enjoy using the language? Will you today make a commitment that you will do everything in your power to ensure that plans are agreed for Welsh-medium secondary education in the counties of Merthyr, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire during your term as education Minister, please?

I thank the Member for that question. As I said in response to Gareth Davies, we are dependent on proposals from local authorities in this area, as I know that the Member understands. But we also expect to see ambitious strategic plans from every local authority in Wales.

All of the local authorities in her region are now consulting on their plans. Those plans, I know, include consideration of a joint Welsh-medium secondary school, and so I would support that in order to provide across the region the secondary Welsh-medium education provision that young people need in that part of Wales.

Minister, the new curriculum places an expectation on teachers to be able to teach to a certain degree through the medium of Welsh. For the benefit of the pupil, we need high-quality teachers here in Wales, with a wide broad range of experiences and backgrounds, in our schools. In areas such as south-east Wales, where staff are often recruited or even commute from over the border in England, the need for Welsh-medium skills could be a barrier to recruitment. Can you outline what support this Government will provide to any teacher who wants to teach in Wales to learn the necessary language skills in order to ensure that there are no barriers to applicants in making their applications?

Well, not all teachers need to be able to teach through the medium of Welsh. I have just had a conversation with Cefin Campbell about the need to recruit more Welsh-medium teachers. But we also need to provide support, as we are doing through the work of the national learning centre, for adults to be able to learn Welsh in order to extend the use of Welsh in our communities more generally. So, there are a variety of interventions of that kind that are available.

We also need to ensure that we support, as part of the strategy that I mentioned earlier, not only the question of recruitment, but also Welsh learners, and support school leaders to plan more strategically, perhaps, and have the skills and support to do that in order to provide Welsh-medium education more broadly within our schools.