The Carmarthen Journal followed up its recent report on proposals to turn Ysgol y Ddwylan in Newcastle Emlyn into a Category A Welsh medium school with a second article last week under the headline "Parents stunned by school's Welsh only classes".
In the piece which follows, most of the report is taken up by comments made by a handful of the town's councillors, one of whom happens to be a parent with children at the school. Two councillors suggested that the wisest thing would be to wait for the consultation to begin, while a third argued that,
I think they [the school] will fail a lot of children in the local area.
If we accept that argument, existing category A schools in the area - the overwhelming majority of schools here - must all be failing children. Clearly that is nonsense.
One parent who also happens to be a member of the Town Council does not add up to "stunned parents", does it?
It seems that any formal consultation could be some way off, so the Journal may struggle to sustain this level of shrill scaremongering.
Meanwhile, it would not be too difficult for the Journal to find parents who welcome proposals which will give more children an opportunity to grow up with skills and advantages most of their parents do not possess.
Thought for the Day: It is the children who are being denied a bilingual education who are being failed.
8 comments:
It is the children who are being denied a bilingual education who are being failed.
That is true everywhere in the UK, language learning should start in the nursery and junior schools and there should be more than two taught as well
Very biased article too. How the hell is Emlyn high school as it should be called English medium? If its feeder schools are mainly Welsh medium, does that mean they change language when they move up to secondary level? No wonder the language is being systematically murdered in its former heartlands. I just love Carmarthenshire council
According to the most recent ESTYN report (2007) a mere 28% of the school's children speak Welsh as their home language. This figure is almost certainly lower now.
Apparantly the change from Category A/B to A in Ysgol y Ddwylan can't come quickly enough.
The very most detailed figures released on Wednesday show that Welsh suffered a rapid decline in Newcastle Emlyn between the censuses: down from 68.1% to 53.7%. Cenarth, meanwhile, which following the demise of Capel Iwan school is part of Ysgol y Ddwylan's catchment sustained a decline of 8.8%.
Fully 49.5% of Cenarth parish residents were born outside Wales (up from 44.5% in 2001). Either their mothers all needed specialist obstetric care in Bristol, or immigration has continued apace.
Immigration from England has continued and will continue. The language as a community language is doomed. A tragedy.
It's not doomed we just need to ensure that everything possible is done to protect it.
If we think it's doomed, it might be. I am an incomer who defends the Welsh language at every opportunity. I send Welsh-language birthday cards to our English family as if that's the only language there is here. :) If the perception is that the language is alive and well (which i believe it is!!) then it is more likely to continue so.
Diolch Dysgwr. No matter what level you have reached in learning the language, there is loads of help available to take you on, and have a bit of fun as well. If you are interested, contact me on trydar@hotmail.co.uk, and I will be pleased to help.
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