Welsh medium education

Education delivered through the medium of the Welsh language is known as Welsh-medium education (Welsh: Addysg cyfrwng Cymraeg).

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Welsh-medium education should be distinguished from the teaching of the Welsh language itself as an academic subject.

Sixteen per cent of pupils in Wales attend Welsh-medium schools, with a further 10 per cent attending schools that are bilingual, dual-medium, or in English with significant Welsh provision.^[1] The Welsh Government's current target is to increase the proportion of each school year group receiving Welsh-medium education to 30 per cent by 2031, and then 40 per cent by 2050.^[2]

Ysgol Glan Clwyd was the first Welsh-medium secondary (comprehensive) school, and opened in Rhyl in 1956. There is no private designated Welsh-medium school in Wales, although one does exist in London, known as the London Welsh School.

Contents

• 
  1 Nursery Education
  


• 
  2 Primary education
  


• 
  3 Secondary education
  


• 
  4 Further education
  


• 
  5 Higher education
  


• 
  6 See also
  


• 
  7 References
  


• 
  8 External links
  

Nursery Education

Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (Nursery Schools Movement) has established play groups 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 11,828 children in cylchoedd meithrin (Mudiad Meithrin playgroups) in 2014-2015, with 22,000 children attending Mudiad Meithrin establishments every week.^[3][4]

The spread of such nurseries has ensured strong demand from parents for Welsh-medium primary schools. The success of Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin inspired the Ikastolak movement in the Basque Country and the Diwan movement in Brittany.^{[citation needed]}

Primary education

In the primary school sector, the numbers of children in Welsh-medium schools (or in the Welsh-medium stream of dual stream schools) has grown steadily in recent years. Welsh Government statistics show that in 2014, 22.2 per cent of 7 year old learners were assessed through the medium of Welsh first language

School year	Total pupils	Welsh-Medium pupils	Welsh-Medium as % of total	% change
2000/2001	262,751	49,422	18.81%
2001/2002	260,151	49,687	19.10%	+1.5%
2002/2003	256,690	50,756	19.77%	+3.5%
2003/2004	252,230	51,131	20.27%	+2.5%
2004/2005	248,328	52,792	21.26%	+4.9%
2005/2006	243,982	52,867	21.67%	+1.9%
2006/2007	240,621	54,099	22.48%	+3.7%
2007/2008	237,917	54,895	23.07%	+2.6%
2008/2009	258,314	59,989	23.22%	+0.7%
2009/2010	257,445	60,318	23.43%	+0.9%
2010/2011	259,189	61,073	23.56%	+0.6%
2011/2012	262,144	62,446	23.82%	+1.1%
2012/2013	264,186	63,192	23.92%	+0.4%
2013/2014	269,421	64,366	23.89%	-0.1%
2014/2015	273,400	65,460	23.94%	+0.2%
2015/2016	276,954	66,101	23.86%	-0.3%
2016/2017	276,940	66,612	24.05%	+0.8%
2017/2018	277,095	66,189	23.89%	-0.7%

Information taken from Schools in Wales (accessed 23 July 2010)
Update for last three years taken from School Census Results, 2012 (accessed 17 May 2013)

Secondary education

The percentage of children in Welsh-medium secondary schools is slightly less than in primary schools, but has also grown, although it appears to have stabilised in the 2010s. Including Middle School pupils from 2012/2013.

School year	Total pupils	Welsh-Medium pupils	Welsh-Medium as % of total	% change
2000/2001	210,396	38,007	18.06%
2001/2002	212,024	38,817	18.31%	+1.4%
2002/2003	214,276	39,458	18.41%	+0.5%
2003/2004	215,609	40,169	18.63%	+1.2%
2004/2005	214,626	40,221	18.74%	+0.6%
2005/2006	213,045	40,828	19.16%	+2.2%
2006/2007	210,353	40,702	19.35%	+1.0%
2007/2008	206,936	40,756	19.69%	+1.8%
2008/2009	205,421	41,916	20.40%	+3.6%
2009/2010	203,907	43,432	21.30%	+4.4%
2010/2011	201,230	41,764	20.75%	-2.7%
2011/2012	198,015	41,262	20.84%	+0.4%
2012/2013	194,927	39,326	20.17%	-3.2%
2013/2014	189,969	38,977	20.52%	+1.7%
2014/2015	186,784	38,933	20.84%	+1.6%
2015/2016	184,040	38,858	21.11%	+1.3%
2016/2017	183,975	39,233	21.32%	+1.0%
2017/2018	184,371	40,285	21.85%	+2.5%

Information taken from Schools in Wales (accessed 23 July 2010)
Update for last three years taken from School Census Results, 2012 (accessed 17 May 2013)

Further education

During 2015/2016, 7.8 per cent of learning activities in the Further Education sector included some element of Welsh, with 0.29 per cent 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 per cent); Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care (17.7 per cent) and Business, Administration and Law (14.2 per cent).^[5]

Higher education

In 2014/15, the number of higher education students with at least some teaching through the medium of Welsh reached an all-time high with 6,355 students, or 5.1 per cent of all students at Welsh universities.^[6] Of these 6,355 students, 53 per cent were taught entirely through the medium of Welsh and 47 per cent were taught part of their course in Welsh.^[7]

The University of Wales, Trinity Saint David had both the highest number of students (2,185) and the highest proportion of its students (21 per cent) receiving at least some teaching through the medium of Welsh. Glyndŵr University had both the lowest number (45) and proportion of its students (0.7 per cent) receiving at least some teaching through the medium of Welsh.

10,030 university students in Wales were fluent Welsh speakers in 2015/2016, with a further 10,330 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 1,755 students. According to the latest data collected in 2015/2016, Bangor University had the highest percentage of fluent Welsh-speaking students of all Higher Education institutions in Wales: This constituted to 41.7 per cent of all students in the University.^[8]

See also

• Education in Wales


• 
  Gaelscoil: Irish-medium education

References

1. 
   ^ "statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Education-and-Skills/Schools-and-Teachers/Schools-Census/Pupil-Level-Annual-School-Census/Welsh-Language/pupils-by-localauthorityregion-welshmediumtype". statswales.gov.wales. Retrieved 2017-02-23..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ us, Contact; Phone 0300 111 0124; Sms 07786205605; help@wcva.org.uk, Email. "Welsh Government launches strategy to almost double the number of Welsh speakers by 2050". www.wcva.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
   


3. 
   ^ http://www.comisiynyddygymraeg.cymru/Cymraeg/Rhestr%20Cyhoeddiadau/Adroddiad%205%20Mlynedd%20-%20Gwefan%20-%20Website%20(unigol).pdf Archived 11 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine
   


4. 
   ^ "Mudiad Meithrin Annual Report 2014-2015" (PDF). Retrieved 7 September 2017.
   


5. 
   ^ "Learning activities at further education institutions by subject and medium of delivery". statswales.gov.wales. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
   


6. 
   ^ "Welsh in higher education institutions". gov.wales. Welsh Government. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
   


7. 
   ^ Jones, Megan (July 2017). "Welsh-medium and bilingual provision in Further and Higher Education" (PDF). National Assembly for Wales. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
   


8. 
   ^ "statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Education-and-Skills/Post-16-Education-and-Training/Higher-Education/Welsh-Medium/welshspeakingstudentsinwalesfromwales-by-institution". statswales.gov.wales. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
   

External links

• Welsh Language Board


• 
  Mudiad Meithrin: early years Welsh-medium education

v t e Celtic languages
Continental Celtic	Celtiberian Cisalpine Gaulish Galatian Gallaecian Gaulish Lepontic Noric
Insular Celtic	Brittonic (Brythonic) Common Brittonic Old Welsh Middle Welsh Welsh Cumbric Cornish Breton Ivernic Goidelic (Gaelic) Primitive Irish Old Irish Middle Irish Classical Gaelic Irish Manx Scottish Gaelic Galwegian Gaelic Uncertain Pictish
Mixed	Beurla Reagaird Shelta
Celtic-speaking areas	Gaeltacht Gàidhealtachd Y Fro Gymraeg Lower Brittany Cape Breton Island Y Wladfa
Immersive education	Irish medium education Gaelic medium education Manx medium education Welsh medium education Breton medium education Cornish medium nursery
Reconstructed	Proto-Celtic language
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