P-04-649 Welsh-Medium Education - Garland or Albatross
P-04-649 Welsh-Medium Education - Garland or Albatross
The
Welsh Government is rightly committed to achieving best value for money in all
Public Services: sadly, the Department for Education and Skills spends
£2billion each year only to provide the lowest standard of education in the UK.
The Minister has said that “Education today is the Economy tomorrow”; if he is
right, the outlook for Wales is truly bleak. When set against International
PISA standards, the quality of Education in our Schools has been in
catastrophic decline since Devolution. The Government says, in its defence,
that delivering Public Services in Wales is hampered by poverty and by a
dispersed population: but, GDP is lower in Northern Ireland and there are fewer
people per square mile both in Northern Ireland and in Scotland. The
Environment seems to be in safer hands. A derelict site cannot be developed
without a prior Environmental Impact Assessment; no stone may be turned if
there’s the faintest chance of a newt hiding under it or a migratory bird
fossicking over it.
Our
Children, it seems, don’t warrant such care – there being no corresponding
Educational Impact Assessment before each new initiative further disrupts the
classroom. Given that, for every aptitude and ability, 50% of the population is
– by definition – below average; it was irresponsible of the Government to
implement the Welsh Medium Education Policy without first having established
that children with below average language skills have the capacity to be
bilingual. In the absence of any contrary evidence, it seems entirely possible
that it is this extra burden of the bilingual programme that is crippling our
young people both for the PISA tests and for life.
We
ask that the Welsh Medium Education experiment be abandoned – unless it can be
clearly shown that its continuance is doing no harm.
Additional Information
The
Government, it seems, is unable to distinguish between MUST and WANT: it must
manage the Economy successfully, it must deliver a first rate Education and it
must achieve best value for money in all public spending; in addition, as a
perfectly legitimate national aspiration, it may want to foster a thriving
Welsh language… but such whims cannot be allowed to interfere with absolute
necessity. The execution of Policy is said to be subject to intense scrutiny
both from the Assembly and from other, supposedly independent, Public Bodies:
it is, then, astonishing - that neither Assembly Committees nor Estyn nor the
Auditor General’s Office can produce any evidence to show: • that Employers
value and want workers who are bilingual in English and Welsh; • that a person
with below average language skills has the capacity to be bilingual; • that it
is NOT the extra burden of the bilingual programme that is crippling our young
people in the PISA tests; • that, with particular reference to our
deteriorating PISA standings, the Government IS achieving best value for money
with regard to its spending on Education; • that the business of creating
wealth is carried out in Welsh; or, • that, in spite of all indications to the
contrary, the DfES is fit for purpose. As a further illustration of DfES folly,
£12m is frittered away, each year, on the Welsh for Adults programme: not in
the classroom, on “teaching”, but on administration. Worse, no-one can say how
many (if any) learners have emerged fluent in Welsh.
Petition raised by: Norman Hudson
Date petition first
considered by Committee:
Number of signatures: 117 Online signatures
Business type: Petition
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
Status: For consideration
First published: 10/09/2015