Opportunities for pupils to be educated in Welsh

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Opportunities for pupils to be educated in Welsh will be broadened following a decision by the Welsh Assembly to allow pupils to enter into Welsh-medium education at the upper end of primary school, instead of only at the age of three or five. The Assembly has given the go-ahead for a series of pilot projects to enable children to be immersed in Welsh so they can move into the Welsh-medium sector and study more subjects in the language. Jane Davidson, minister for education and lifelong learning, said she had seen the benefits of immersion education and intensive language teaching during a visit to Canada, and was 'very keen to examine the scope for implementing a model in Wales'. The voluntary pilots are being developed by the Welsh Language Board. They will involve children in Year Six from May and pupils in Year Three from September.The work will be overseen by a steering group chaired by an Assembly official with representation from Estyn, which inspects education and training in Wales, and the Qualifications Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales.