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The Welsh Labour Government wants ONE MILLION Welsh speakers by 2050 and to do so is planning to eliminate English language teaching in primary schools, what are the implications?
After 17 years of Labours’ dominance of Welsh politics their Social Engineering Agenda is finally in the open but anyone expecting a debate on the merits of dragging Wales back into the 13th century world or any scrutiny of such policies is going to be disappointed – Welsh Media does not tolerate dissent or any ‘disrespect’ of the Welsh language and its culture!
We are only days away from the Welsh Assembly elections and most of us have seen endless politico posturing and their promises of a better tomorrow to get our vote but none of the Party Political Broadcasts including the leader debates have ever touched upon the Welsh language imposition – there is only a Deafening Silence!
Take the article following this extended preamble which has been ‘shamelessly plagiarised’ from BBC Wales’ web pages: “Welsh Labour to create One Million Welsh speakers by 2050” (BBC Wales has a habit of removing pages that may prove to be embarrassing to their cause).
The only external body invited by BBC to comment was the Welsh language pressure group (Cymdeithas yr Iaith), at best a looney organisation basing their ‘living’ upon a simple premise “Every child born in Wales has an entitlement and a birth right to speak Welsh”
Putting aside the sheer madness of their stance and unreserved support of anything Welsh or Cymraeg as they call it, BBC Wales doesn’t say, or asks how One Million Welsh speakers are going to be created.
The answer to this is simple as not long ago Carwyn Jones wrote to me on this very subject (Letter dated 22nd October 2015) where he stated: “The cultural, cognitive and practical benefits of learning Welsh as a living language provide a strong case for its inclusion as a compulsory element in the school curriculum”.
To see Carwyn’s letter in full, click HERE, but to understand what the Welsh language compulsory inclusion means, we now come to the realm of pure insanity – Carwyn Jones is going to erase English Medium education in all Welsh primary state schools including nursery education and confine Welsh children to perpetual misery and underachievement for life.
Carwyn Jones knows that the Welsh speaking target of One Million can’t be achieved anytime soon if ever and for a very simple reason there are not enough Welsh Language teachers and still too many ‘incumbents’ in teaching posts that have no Welsh language skills and for now can’t be disposed of or replaced until they retire or leave.
The shortage of ‘high quality’ Welsh speaking teachers has not escaped Carwyn Jones and for some years now the Welsh Medium Higher Education has been in overdrive to create a new generation of teachers to fit Carwyn’s bilingual model: “Excellence in Welsh language” hence the reason for most students coming from Welsh language 1 homes (These students often lack good A levels in English or numeracy but that is not a deterrent for the Welsh teaching profession) – The Welsh Government has removed the need for students on teacher training courses to pass the Skills Tests in Literacy, Numeracy and ICT, to obtain Qualified Teacher Status as is the case in England!
In short, the pursuit of a Welsh speaking nation by Carwyn Jones and his Welsh speaking ‘Crachach’ has no boundaries or limits based on ethics and are damaging Welsh education through a horrendous and an abhorrent Orwellian policy that disregards parental wishes, but above all ignores the well-established facts from the few areas of Wales where English Medium education no longer exists or is nearly extinct (Gwynedd and few neighbouring Counties).
In those Counties the English Language 1 children are damaged academically (poor in English, bad in literacy and dreadful in numeracy) and it should be of no surprise to anyone that the Welsh Medium Education with all the fanfare and embellishments it gets from the Welsh Government and the Welsh media is in truth inferior to the English Medium Education – Source Welsh Government’s Statistics:
http://gov.wales/about/foi/responses/dl2014/sept14/atisn8775/?lang=en)
BBC Wales knows this well but continues to promote the ‘virtues of the Welsh language learning’ on par with the worst excesses that some of the past totalitarian states used, Stalinism and Nazism comes to mind in this context!
Harsh words? I don’t think so, as in the same week BBC Wales’ business correspondent published another article entitled “Wales must cut it with skills challenge” highlighting a recent survey involving more than 200 Welsh companies showing that most school leavers applying for jobs in Wales lacked skills such as basic numeracy and had no adequate English language reading or writing when compared to the UK as a whole, and the BBC’s education correspondent sees no need to search for reasons or to find any explanation to what’s happening to our children in Welsh education and why!
BBC Wales has read the Welsh Labour Manifesto but only used selective paragraphs and failed to see the dark side –
Labour Manifesto says:
“We lead England in 12 A-Levels – including Maths and Physics – and GCSE results are at a record high” – A blatant lie of no concern to BBC and no mention that the Welsh GCSE’s standards have been ‘watered down’ to conceal failings and where a Welsh GCSE grade A in most subjects at best equates to a GCSE Grade C in England!
Then a contradictory paragraph: “We will build on the record success of education in Wales by investing an extra £100 million to improve standards in our schools. This will build on the Literacy and Numeracy Framework and the transformative work of Schools Challenge Cymru” – Why change the system that is so good as Labour manifesto states in the earlier sentence, what is left to improve?
Then there is an invisible dark side: “We wish to see one million people speaking the Welsh language and will continue investing to encourage more people to use and speak Welsh. We will amend the Measure so that business and others can invest in more in encouraging the use of the Welsh language. We will establish a Language Usage Fund and invite business to invest in the future of the language. We recognise the importance of the media and will press for fair funding for both Welsh and English language broadcasting in Wales, as well as exploring options for supporting online and print media” – BBC picked up the ONE MILLION Welsh speaking target but ignored some alarming undertones in Labour’s Manifesto, especially the meaning behind a relatively benign statement “We will amend the measures”: to me this means more compulsory and draconian measures to supplement their ‘Welsh Language Standards’ where all Welsh businesses (Public and Private) will be compelled to employ Welsh speakers even in areas where Welsh language is of little or no relevance! Then there is the implied intervention to ‘Make Welsh media thrive’ irrespective if Welsh people want it or not, and all of this is invisible to BBC Wales.
Finally, BBC Wales tells us that ‘we already have 562,000 Welsh speakers based on last census data” which to the uninformed may suggest that the Welsh language is thriving and ‘growing’ but BBC says nothing about the Welsh language use survey to work out how many have full Welsh language skills (Reading and Writing) or who preferred to speak Welsh – http://gov.wales/docs/statistics/2016/160301-welsh-language-use-in-wales-2013-15-en.pdf. Page 47 tells us that just 1 in 5 Welsh speakers felt most comfortable speaking Welsh or circa 100,000 true Welsh speakers out of 3.063 million people living in Wales – Perhaps an inconvenient truth is the reason for BBC failing to highlight this fact?
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Back to BBC’ web page:
Labour promises one million Welsh speakers by 2050
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Labour’s assembly election manifesto will commit to ensuring there are a million people speaking Welsh by 2050.
In 2011, there were 562,000 Welsh speakers, according to the census.
Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith has previously called for measures that would lead to a million Welsh speakers.
Labour said “common sense” and “common cause” were needed to promote the language. Cymdeithas yr Iaith said the party’s move was “encouraging”.
Labour assembly candidate Sion Jones said: “The idea that Cymdeithas could have influenced our manifesto in the past is probably hard to imagine, that’s just not the case now, and there’s a genuine change of attitude on all sides.
“To promote the language, we need common sense, common ground and common cause.”
Language campaigners say the next Welsh Government needs to honour any commitment it has made.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Chairman Jamie Bevan said: “The idea of reaching a million Welsh speakers has provoked cross-party support, and most importantly, public support.
“However, it is relatively easy to commit to a single target. “In the area of language policy, we have seen a number of key targets set over the years, but ultimately get unfulfilled.”
Where the other Welsh Political Parties stand on this issue:
The Welsh Conservatives say they want to see an increase in the numbers speaking Welsh outside the classroom and would also develop a network of “Welsh Language Business Champions”.
Plaid Cymru’s manifesto makes a commitment to a “genuinely bilingual” Wales and a target that 50% of seven-year-olds will be in Welsh medium education by 2030.
The Liberal Democrats say they would target services at young people in their teens who already speak Welsh as a key group for the future of the language.
The Lib Dems would also introduce special provision for pupils to catch up with their peers in learning Welsh.
UKIP say the Welsh language is a source of pride for the nation and the party would protect the language through Welsh medium education.
End of BBC Cymru Wales
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In conclusion BBC continues to mislead the Welsh public and most ‘Welsh politicos’ have no guts or integrity to demand a public consultation on the merits of Welsh language imposition – It appears we are faced with a long process of a steady but assured decline of all key elements that define the well-being of a nation (Education; NHS and Economy)!
Jacques Protic 23.04.2016