Welsh-medium education (Welsh: Addysg cyfrwng Cymraeg) is a form of education in Wales in which pupils are taught primarily through the medium of Welsh.
The aim of Welsh-medium education is to achieve fluency in both Welsh and English. All children over the age of seven receive some of their instruction in English. In 2015, 16% of children in primary and secondary schools in Wales were in Welsh-medium schools. A further 10% were in schools classified as bilingual or with different language streams. There is some evidence that children in Welsh-medium education tend to perform worse academically than others.[1] A smaller proportion of people in higher levels of education study partially or fully through the medium of Welsh.
Formal Welsh-medium education began in Wales in 1939, and the first Welsh-medium secondary education began in 1962. In the following decades the provision was greatly expanded. The Welsh Government target is for 30% of pupils to be taught in this manner by 2031 and 40% by 2050.
In the early 19th century, English became the usual language of instruction at schools in Wales. While the country's working class was largely Welsh-speaking at the time, Welsh public opinion wished for children to learn English.[2][3] Many schools used corporal punishment to stop children from speaking Welsh in the first half of the 19th century;[4] the practice declined in the second half of the century.[5][6] The British government never prohibited the use of Welsh at schools but it treated English as the assumed language of instruction.[7] More Welsh was gradually used at schools in Welsh-speaking areas in the mid to late 19th century[8][9] and teaching of the language began to receive moderate government support from the late 19th century.[10]
In 1939, the first Welsh-medium primary school was established independently of the state by the Urdd in Aberystwyth.[11]Ysgol Glan Clwyd was the first designated bilingual secondary school in Wales, which opened in 1956.[12] Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen (now Ysgol Garth Olwg) became the first Welsh-medium secondary school in South Wales in 1962.[13]
The Welsh Government's current target is to increase the proportion of each school year group receiving Welsh-medium education to 30% by 2031, and then 40% by 2050.[14] During a Senedd debate in December 2022, Plaid Cymru suggested Welsh-medium education be made compulsory to all students in Wales as part of the bill. It was rejected by the Welsh Government.[15] In March 2023, the Welsh government introduced a white paper for a new Welsh Language Education Bill which would make various changes to Welsh language policy including improving teaching of Welsh in English-medium schools and requiring local authorities to promote Welsh-medium education.[16]
Nursery education
Mudiad Meithrin (Nursery Movement), formerly Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (Nursery Schools Movement) has established playgroups and nurseries throughout Wales which allow children to learn Welsh through immersion. It is the main Welsh-medium education and care provider in Wales for the early years. There were 12,773 children in cylchoedd meithrin (Mudiad Meithrin playgroups) and day nurseries in 2018–2019.[17]
Na Naíscoileanna Gaelacha (Irish Infant Schools Organisation) was established in 1974 with continued input from Cylchoedd Meithrin.[18] Alongside Ikastola in the Basque Autonomous Community, the Welsh Meithrin inspired the Diwan movement in Brittany.[19]
Schools
A Welsh Government video about Treorchy Comprehensive an English medium school which had seen an improvement in its results after introducing bilingual education for higher ability students. (2012)
A significant minority of schoolchildren in Wales are educated largely through the medium of Welsh: in 2014–2015, 15.7% of children and young people received Welsh-medium education – a drop from the 15.9% in 2010–2011.[20] An additional 10% attended "bilingual, dual-medium [with Welsh and English speaking departments], or English with significant Welsh provision" schools.[21]
Educational institutions have flexibility over how much English children are taught prior to the age of seven.[22] This is in order to allow Welsh-medium schools and nurseries to immerse young children in the language as much as possible.[23] In the later years of primary school, the curriculum at Welsh-medium schools continues to be mostly (70% or more) taught in Welsh whilst at secondary level all subjects other than English are taught in Welsh. There are also various categories of primary and secondary level bilingual-schools. These have greater use of English and less use of Welsh in lessons.[21] As they get older, students in Welsh-medium education are required to work towards the same tests and qualifications in the English language as their counterparts who were primarily educated in English.[24][25]
Studies suggest that parents choose Welsh-medium education as an expression of cultural identity and due to believing it will provide an economic advantage to their children.[26] A 1998 study suggested that the language medium of a secondary school had little effect on its GCSE performance.[27] There is other evidence that Welsh-medium schools tend to have poorer academic results than their English-medium counterparts and struggle to accommodate children with learning difficulties.[28] The Welsh school inspectorate's (Estyn) view expressed in a 2022 book about its history is that Welsh-medium education allows more children to become fluent in both Welsh and English.[29]
Primary school
Welsh Government statistics show that in 2019, 22.8% of 7-year-old learners were assessed through the medium of Welsh (first language).[30]
The following chart gives the proportion of primary school pupils receiving Welsh-medium education each year.
Number of pupils in primary school classes by Welsh category (Pupil Level Annual School Census)[31]
During 2015–2016, 7.8% of learning activities in the Further Education sector included some element of Welsh, with 0.29% of activities offered through Welsh only. The subjects with the highest number of learning activities with some element of Welsh were Retail and Commercial Enterprise (18.1%); Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care (17.7%) and Business, Administration and Law (14.2%).[33]
Higher education
In 2014–2015, the number of higher education students with at least some learning through the medium of Welsh reached an all-time high with 6,355 students, or 5.1% of all students at Welsh universities.[34] Of these 6,355 students, 53% were taught entirely through the medium of Welsh and 47% were taught part of their course in Welsh.[35] By 2020–2021, the number of students at Higher Education Institutions with some learning through Welsh was 6,940, equating to 5% of all enrolments at Higher Education Institutions in Wales.[36]
In 2020–2021, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David had both the highest number of students (3,510) and the highest proportion of its students (24%) receiving at least some teaching through the medium of Welsh. Glyndŵr University and the University of South Wales had the lowest proportion of its students (0%) receiving at least some teaching through the medium of Welsh.
10,345 university students in Wales were fluent Welsh speakers in 2020–2021, with a further 10,485 speakers recording themselves as Welsh speakers but not fluent. Of all universities in Wales, Cardiff University had the highest number of fluent Welsh-speaking students, amounting to 1,670 students. According to the latest data collected in 2020–2021, Bangor University had the highest percentage of fluent Welsh-speaking students of all universities in Wales (38%), followed by Aberystwyth University (30%) and Swansea University (17%).[37]
^Norris, Barry (2022). "Challenge and transition: The inspectorate in Wales, 1992–2020". In Keane, Ann (ed.). Watchdogs or Visionaries?: Perspectives on the History of the Education Inspectorate in Wales. University of Wales Press. ASINB0BLCS7YDK.
