Fears Welsh teaching plan will hit recruitment

Phasing out teaching in English in one county could worsen a “crisis” in recruiting and retaining teachers, an education union has said.

Gwynedd, one of two counties where Welsh is spoken by the majority of people, laid out plans to phase out English-medium streams from the vast majority of secondary schools in a new draft policy.

Cyngor Gwynedd said it was part of an effort to bolster the use of Welsh in schools.

But a council meeting has heard it was already difficult to attract staff to the county and, nationally, teachers were leaving the profession “in droves”.

The comments were made during a debate over the draft revised education language policy last week.

The council is aiming for 70% of lessons to be taught in Welsh but the branch secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), Elise Poulter, has raised concerns over training, funding and the impact on the Welsh language immersion system.

Welsh is already the predominant medium of teaching across Gwynedd, but schools including Bangor’s Ysgol Friars, Catholic primary Our Lady’s School and Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn, are “transitioning” towards full Welsh medium provision.

Ms Poulter asked the education and economy scrutiny committee meeting if there was provision for teachers who do not teach in Welsh to go on courses to “up-skill”.

Report author Rhys Meredydd Glyn, head of Gwynedd’s immersion education system, said the council was “collaborating with” the National Centre for Learning Welsh.

Some courses were “tailored” for teachers in specific schools and there would also be tutors appointed for a catchment or school cluster, as well as courses geared towards teaching different subjects in Welsh, he said.

Children coming from non-Welsh speaking areas could also be referred to the immersion education system, but he acknowledged it needed “the capacity to accept incomers and late comers”.

Mr Meredydd Glyn said there were “a wide range of courses available from the national centre” but Ms Poulter said she feared these measures would not stem the numbers of people leaving teaching.

“I do think we have to be realistic, in teaching we have a retention and recruitment crisis,” she said.

“We want really really good teachers. I think any teacher who comes here would welcome the opportunity to learn Welsh fluently… But it will take time.”

Councillor Dewi Jones agreed that recruiting teachers was a “general problem”.

After the meeting, Ms Poulter told the Local Democracy Reporting Serviceday-release programme for this, with payment for staff cover” to achieve the goal.