Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee
National Assembly for Wales
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1NA
28/11/2016
Consultation on the Welsh Government's strategy: one million Welsh speakers by
2050
1.1
The Welsh Language Commissioner welcomes the opportunity to comment on the
above strategy in order to assist the committee with the direction of its inquiry. I
understand that I will receive an invitation in due course to present evidence in
person to the committee on this strategy. I look forward to that opportunity.
2
Context
2.1
The principal aim of the Welsh Language Commissioner is to promote and facilitate
the use of Welsh. Two principles underpin the Commissioner's work:
 In Wales, the Welsh language should be treated no less favourably than the
English language;
 Persons in Wales should be able to live their lives through the medium of the
Welsh language if they choose to do so.
2.2
One of the Commissioner's strategic aims is to influence the consideration given to
the Welsh language in terms of policy development. The following comments are
provided to this end and in accordance with the Commissioner's role as an
independent advocate on behalf of Welsh speakers in Wales who may be affected
by this consultation.
2.3
The committee asks for comments in response to two specific challenges that will
need to be addressed in implementing a Welsh language strategy over the coming
years. I present my comments to you herewith on those particular challenges. I
have provided comments to the Welsh Government on the strategy as a whole.
These comments can be accessed via our website. I trust that these comments will
be of interest and useful.
3.
Improving workforce planning and support for practitioners for all phases of
education
3.1
In March 2016, the Welsh Government published a comprehensive report on the
evaluation of its Welsh-medium Education Strategy. A number of conclusions are
noted within that report's section on 'workforce development' regarding success in
addressing the challenge of Welsh-medium workforce planning. It notes:
 That the Welsh-medium Education Strategy has not made a significant
contribution to increasing the critical mass of the Welsh-medium workforce.
 That the Teacher Planning and Supply Model used in Wales in order to set the
number of places on Initial Teacher Education and Training programmes in
Wales has not been successful in terms of forward planning for the workforce
needed in the Welsh-medium education sector.
 That the Education Workforce Council does not systematically gather
information on the Welsh language skills of teachers, and this is a barrier in
planning the Welsh-medium workforce effectively.
3.2
Some of those report findings are reflected in section 6.9.6 of the 5-year Report that
I published recently on the position of the Welsh language that examines the
challenges in developing a Welsh-medium education workforce. A copy of this
report has been presented to the committee. I trust that the contents of these
reports will assist the committee in conducting this inquiry.
3.3
In my report, I highlight the considerable challenges facing the Welsh-medium prestatutory sector, especially in terms of workforce development and retention. The
Mudiad Meithrin's childcare scheme, Cam wrth Gam, trains individuals to work
through the medium of Welsh within the care sector.
Despite this, it is
acknowledged that there is a significant lack of carers who are able to work through
the medium of Welsh, and providers continue to face difficulties in recruiting and
retaining Welsh speakers. With the move towards offering 30 hours of free childcare
to working parents, a substantial investment is needed in order to ensure a
childcare workforce that is able to provide those hours through the medium of
Welsh across Wales.
3.4
We know that there is a lack of teachers available to teach some subjects through
the medium of Welsh such as mathematics and science, particularly in the
secondary sector. In order to address this, the link between the needs of the
education workforce, the activities of universities, and the vocational advice given to
pupils and students needs to be strengthened. Where there is a lack of Welsh
speakers within the workforce it is essential that schools and universities aim to
attract Welsh speakers to follow relevant courses in order to address those gaps.
The report on the evaluation of the Welsh Government's Welsh-medium Education
Strategy highlights that the present link between the needs of a Welsh-medium
education workforce and the priorities of education and training providers in Wales
is not strong enough.
3.5
There have been some attempts to address the lack of Welsh speaking teachers to
teach specific subjects. For instance, the Welsh Government has offered financial
incentives to students to take up the Postgraduate Certificate of Education in
subjects where there are insufficient numbers. The Sabbatical Scheme is another
example of positive action in order to address the gaps within the Welsh-medium
education sector. Despite these noteworthy efforts, evidence published by
organisations such as CYDAG suggests that there are still gaps, and new schemes
and interventions need to be developed in order to bridge these gaps.
3.6
My 5-year Report on the Welsh language notes a lack of Welsh language skills
within the post-16 education workforce. The evidence on this highlights the
significant lack of Welsh language skills being put to use by the workforce in this
sector. For instance, the Government's data for 2015 show that 9.4% of academic
staff at our universities can teach through the medium of Welsh, but only 61% of
them do so. This highlights an opportunity to maximise the Welsh language skills
already available within the workforce of this sector.
3.7
As this inquiry's terms of reference suggest, providing support to teachers in
teaching through the medium of both Welsh and English is a crucial element of an
effective educational provision. Members of the committee will be aware of recent
coverage given to the lack of Welsh language textbooks supporting Welsh-medium
education, and the adverse effects of this on classroom teaching and the added
pressure on teachers in having to translate English language textbooks into Welsh
themselves. CYDAG have looked into this problem and have identified a lack of
Welsh language textbooks and resources in a significant number of GCSE, AS and
A Level qualifications. These results were presented to the Welsh Government and
Qualifications Wales and I encourage the committee to give due regard to this
evidence when considering the support available to the Welsh-medium education
workforce.
4.
Ensuring a sufficient workforce for Welsh-medium education and teaching
Welsh as a subject
4.1
In order to ensure a bilingual workforce for the future, for the education sector and
all other employment sectors, the logical step would be to substantially increase the
Welsh-medium childcare provision. The evidence outlined in the Welsh Language
Use Survey 2013-2015 shows the relationship between fluency and how early in life
a person learns Welsh. If there is to be an increase in fluent Welsh speakers who
are able to train and qualify in the future to work through the medium of Welsh
within the education sector and other employment sectors, there must firstly be an
increase in the Welsh-medium childcare provision.
4.2
According to the 2011 Census, less than a quarter of young people age 15-24 are
able to speak Welsh, and the chart below shows that this proportion has not
increased in recent years. The chart highlights that we lose Welsh speakers when
they leave school.
4.3
The Welsh Language Use in Wales 2013-2015 survey shows that around half the
Welsh speakers aged 16-29 in Wales consider themselves to be fluent Welsh
speakers. It is likely that this is due, in part, to the fact that many learnt Welsh at
school, rather than at home as a first language, and that this affects fluency.
Perhaps the lack of frequent Welsh language use by this age group is also a barrier
to fluency. On average, over half of Welsh speakers use Welsh every day, whilst
only 39% of Welsh speakers aged 16-29 do so.
4.4
In consideration of the reasons for the loss of Welsh language skills and the less
frequent use of Welsh on turning 16 years of age, it is likely that one of the main
reasons is the low level of post-16 Welsh-medium education. In 2014/15, 5.1% of
students in higher education institutions in Wales received some of their education
through the medium of Welsh. In the same year, fewer than 0.1% of learning
activities in further education colleges were undertaken through the medium of
Welsh, and fewer than 8% were partly through the medium of Welsh. The number
of apprentices learning through the medium of Welsh or bilingually is also very low.
We can but conclude from this that the post-16 education sector in Wales, educates
and trains the vast majority of our young people to work through the medium of
English. I believe that ensuring a sufficient supply of teachers to teach through the
medium of Welsh will depend on remodelling the language medium of education
within the post-16 sector.
4.5
Naturally, the future workforce will not be created by the post-16 education sector
alone. There has been a large amount of criticism over recent years aimed at
education within schools in terms of their success in creating confident and fluent
Welsh speakers, especially amongst those who do not receive their education
through the medium of Welsh. There are clear consequences to this in terms of the
ability of those who go on to be teachers to teach effectively through the medium of
Welsh. Professor Sioned Davies has published recommendations in order to
address this problem within schools, but it is unclear how those recommendations
have been implemented to date.
4.6
In summary therefore, I believe that the starting point of any serious attempt to
ensure a sufficient workforce for Welsh-medium education will be to create more
fluent young Welsh speakers in general. The language medium of pre-school
childcare is fundamental to this and the Welsh Government's policy of offering 30
hours of free childcare to working parents presents an opportunity to increase
substantially the number of young children receiving Welsh-medium childcare who
then go on to learn at school through the medium of Welsh. This would increase the
recruitment pool of Welsh speaking workers for the future. There is also a need to
overhaul the language of education and training in Wales, thus reversing the current
practice of preparing the vast majority of our young people for work through the
medium of English only.
Yours sincerely
Meri Huws
Welsh Language Commissioner