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Plans for all 16-year-olds to speak Welsh 'lack detail'

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The Welsh government says it will give more details of its plans when the bill returns to the Senedd this week

Plans to increase the number of Welsh speakers in schools need more detail, teaching unions and a Senedd committee have said.

As part of the Welsh Language and Education Bill, by 2050 ministers want every 16-year-old to leave school with the ability to speak Welsh "confidently".

Critics say these aims, while welcome, will need significant investment when there are ongoing problems with staffing.

The Welsh government says it will give more details of its plans when the bill returns to the Senedd this week.

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.

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The bill is expected to be debated in the Senedd this week

Elin Maher, national director of RhAG, known in English as Parents for Welsh Medium Education, said the plan should have been put in place years ago.

"We've been talking about this for 10 years and more. We would be halfway there if we had some kind of strategy. The target for increasing the Welsh medium workforce has to be on the front of the bill.

"If we are really serious about a bilingual country, if we are really serious about a million speakers, then we have to put the resources into strategies so that we can achieve this."

The Welsh government said the bill aims for all children in Wales to become "independent and confident Welsh speakers" by the time they reach the end of compulsory school age by 2050.

"This aim is regardless of their background and whichever language category school they attend," they said, adding that having "a sufficient education workforce" is key to implementing the bill.

Mark Drakeford, Welsh Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, is expected to respond to the committee's recommendations during a Senedd debate on Tuesday.