Agenda item

Councillor D.J.R. Bartlett had earlier declared an interest in that he is President of the Carmarthenshire branch of the National Union of Teachers.

Councillor C.A. Campbell had earlier declared and interest in that he is currently undertaking consultancy work on behalf of ERW.

Councillor M.J.A. Lewis had earlier declared an interest in that she is Vice-President of the Welsh Young Farmers Association.

The Committee received for its consideration, the draft Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) following the public consultation period that ended on the 19th December 2016. The Committee was reminded that in order to comply with the Wales School Standards and Organisation Act (2013), the Authority was required to prepare and submit a Welsh in Education Strategic Plan. As the meeting agenda had been published prior to the end of the consultation period, the Committee received a verbal overview at the meeting outlining the general themes and issues arising from the consultation responses. A total of 20 responses had been received to the consultation.

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the report:

Reference was made to the need to promote the benefits of bilingualism in education and that this was an issue that the Council’s Welsh Language Census Working Group had highlighted and subsequently made recommendations upon in its final report. The Head of Learner Programmes acknowledged that this work needed to be continued but reassured members that much work had already been undertaken in conjunction with the Council’s Corporate Policy Unit in preparing a promotional campaign which would be rolled out in the new year.

Reference was made to the numbers of pupils who, upon leaving a Welsh-medium primary school, were not continuing along the language continuum in secondary school. Disappointment was expressed at the small numbers of pupils following courses through the medium of Welsh at later key stages and whilst this had been the topic of much debate for many years, the gap had still not been reduced. The Head of Learner Programmes noted that there was provision in each of the ‘Outcomes’ contained within the draft document to address this and to make it a more natural to transfer from one key stage to the other. There was also a proposal to instigate a forum at regional ERW level to further address the issue. 

It was suggested that the benefits of bilingualism to an individual’s health should also be included within the Plan and reference was made to the body of international research which indicated that the ability to speak more than one language had been found to offset the effects of Alzheimer’s disease for approximately five years, when compared with those who only spoke one language.

It was also suggested that the phrase ‘we will continually monitor with partners the demand in our urban areas and expand provision as required’ should be changed to ‘continually promoting’ as the Authority should be promoting the language rather than waiting for a call for support.  

In response to the comments about pupils not choosing to remain on the language continuum in secondary education, it was suggested that one of the factors in some areas of the county was that pupils did not have sufficient transport access to the nearest Welsh-medium secondary school and were, due to catchment areas, directed to another school. 

The Committee UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED to endorse the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan to the Executive Board for its consideration.