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ViewsAugust 2nd, 2023
Angharad Morgan, Policy Manager for Mudiad Meithrin, discusses the future of the Welsh language and the role that Welsh-medium education has in developing the speakers of the future.
At Mudiad Meithrin we believe that the Welsh language belongs to everyone in Wales. Two decades after the publication of Iaith Pawb i by Welsh Government, and 5 years since Cymraeg 2050 ii, we are still battling to establish firm foundations for the future of our language.
The 2021 census showed a decline in the number of Welsh speakers iii – but yet showed that nearly 1 in 5 of us can speak it. The Annual Population Survey 2022 iv suggests that 29.5% of the population aged three or older in Wales (or 900,600 people) are able to speak Welsh. We face a challenge that is as much about perception as it is about numbers.
Is a million speakers really possible?
The simple answer is YES. But it isn’t going to happen overnight.
A million speakers is a headline maker – but to get there we need to encourage people to use Welsh more often, in more places. We need to nurture the belief that Welsh, as a language, belongs to us all.
Welsh-medium education
The education sector, and consequently early years services, have a significant role to play in developing and supporting the Welsh speakers of the future. Only a minority of our children currently complete their education in Welsh – and Welsh Government’s target v is for 40% of all pupils to be in Welsh-medium education by 2050.
Facilitating access to Welsh-medium activities and services to all families across Wales at the beginning of this journey is essential. Since 1971, Mudiad Meithrin has represented the Welsh-medium early years and childcare sector. We support Cylchoedd Ti a Fi (Stay and Play groups), Cylchoedd Meithrin (Welsh-medium playgroups), Day Nurseries and the Cymraeg for Kids. We provide Welsh-medium training opportunities across Wales for anyone who wants to begin or build a career in the early years sector.
Welsh in the Community
There has been a significant increase in the number of Welsh-speakers who learnt Welsh outside the home in recent decades, with over 75% vi stating that they learned Welsh at school. Despite the relative success of Welsh-medium education in increasing the number of speakers, “school-Welsh” doesn’t always lead to increased community and family use.
To encourage family transmission, alongside providing visible Welsh-medium activities and services for our youngest children and their carers, Mudiad Meithrin provides a range of different activities in communities across Wales. These include Cymraeg for Kids baby massage and yoga sessions, Clwb Cwtsh to encourage using Welsh in everyday family activities as well as established and new Cylchoedd Ti a Fi.
But our communities aren’t just about our children and the language used in their formal education and care settings. Our children need to witness the adults around them using Welsh in all aspects of their lives – both economic and social. Put simply, Welsh needs to be seen as having an economic, emotive and social value for all of us.
Where next?
For Welsh to thrive, it needs to be seen as a language of communication. In our social lives, in shops, on street corners and on social media. To make sure it isn’t ‘just’ a language of education and the workplace.
Welsh Government is building the legislative framework. The proposed Welsh Language Education Bill vii aims to ensure that every child in Wales can develop Welsh language skills to a level that would allow them to live and work in Welsh. The Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities is considering how public policy can be used to strengthen Welsh as a community language across Wales.
It is up to us to make sure that we seize every opportunity to make Welsh part of our communities. Only with our continued, visible, support will our language have a successful future.
References
i Welsh Assembly Government, 2003. Iaith Pawb: A National Action Plan for a Bilingual Wales. Cardiff, Wales.
ii Welsh Government, 2017. Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers. Cardiff, Wales.
iii Howarth, S., 2022. Chief Statistician’s update: understanding Censud 2021 data about the Welsh Language.
iv Welsh Government, 2022. Welsh language data from the Annual Population Survey: 2022 v Welsh Government, 2018. Technical report: Projection and trajectory for the number of Welsh speakers aged three and over, 2011 to 2050.
vi Welsh Government and The Welsh Language Commissioner, 2015. Welsh language use in Wales, 2013-15.
vii Welsh Government, 2023. Proposals for a Welsh Language Education Bill.
I am a Welsh learner married to a fluent speaker and we have 3 children who attended Welsh medium schools and have two teenage grandchildren in a Welsh medium high school in Denbighshire. The urban Welsh medium primary schools are popular with non-Welsh speaking families, many of whom have no interest in the language and don’t support it at home.They send their children to “Welsh schools” because they are perceived as having fewer rough pupils than the other available primary schools. These children bring their indifference to the language to the high school where many of them struggle because their Welsh is not good enough. The first language speakers from the rural schools are outnumbered and become anglicised. The language of the playground and corridors is English.The number of pupils at the Ysgol Uwchradd is about 1200, which gives the illusion that the language is thriving.I think the aim to have a million speakers has not been thought through and it would be more sensible to admit that the existing Welsh medium high schools are not giving a good education to many children from English homes and are not creating new Welsh users. Schools which are Welsh on the outside but English on the inside are harming the education of existing first language speakers and weakening the place of Welsh in the community. It is sad to see well intentioned politicians and enthusiasts for the language killing the thing they love.