Schools: Plans for all 16-year-olds to speak Welsh ‘lack detail’

The plans are part of efforts by the Welsh government to have one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

At Olchfa School in Swansea, only the Welsh lessons are given in Welsh, and head teacher Julian Kennedy estimated the proportion of time needed to study Welsh to the required standard would account for about 10% of the timetable.

“That provides problems for us in terms of recruitment,,” he said, adding that although he is supportive of the policy, “something else has to lose out”.

Mr Kennedy also said the level of Welsh expected by ministers is not in line with what is being taught at the moment.

“All of our young people who leave at the age of 16 have completed Welsh up to GCSE standard, but that is not the level of fluency the Welsh government is looking for,” he said.

The Senedd’s cross-party education committee has been assessing the bill, and although it is happy to move forward, wants to see more detail.

This includes a workforce plan with targets for recruitment and retention, an explanation of how teaching Welsh and teaching through the medium of Welsh would be used to meet targets, and which school activities would count towards the minimum 10% language provision.

The NAHT, the main headteachers’ union, supports the plans but questions how they would work.

Laura Doel, NAHT’s national secretary, said 10% sounds like an “achievable number on paper” but that it depends on the context of the school.

“You may well have some English medium schools where you have teachers that are fluent in Welsh. You might have some that don’t speak any Welsh at all, other than conversational Welsh.

“Then you start to go into the details of what is classed as the delivery of a lesson through the medium of Welsh? Is it totally through the Welsh language? Is it a mixture? Would things like Welsh lessons count? Is that 10% delivery?” she said.