There was a story in Golwg360 yesterday about the publication of a report on the way we teach Welsh to adult learners. There wasn't a link to the report itself, and I tried adding one via the comments, but the system doesn't appear to like links.
So I thought I'd put them up here, as it would be a chance to invite people to read it in English as well as Welsh. Click the image of your choice.
It's a bit long, and I have to say that, as I skimmed through it last night, it's a bit dry. But a longer read might do it more justice. It's probably best to start with the conclusions and recommendations on page 69.
3 comments:
Diolch, MH!
The recommendations hinting at leadership at a national level via a "National Entity" sounds like a good idea, though I don't understand why they want to rationalise to a very specific "10-14 providers" unless they have education authority rearrangements in mind.
The other recommendations sound like things they should be doing now, or long overdue - moderated assessments, improved training for tutors, building links between first language Welsh speakers and learners, using S4C and BBC to create content aimed at learners etc.
It might be dry stuff, but it all sounds pretty sensible to me. I suppose using FE colleges as centres makes sense, but what I don't understand is why they don't make better use of WM schools (outside Y Fro at least) as centres too.
Picking up on Owen's comments - there are too many overlapping and sometimes competing providers at the moment - although they would never admit to competing. The role of local authorities in particular is problematic - this is an activity they have inherited, it's not part of their core activities, and they tend to treat it as just another routine bureaucratic chore.
Add to that the fact that councils tend to offer courses of just 1.5 to 2 hrs a week catering mainly for people aged 60+, and you have to wonder what the point is. It soaks up resources and doesn't really add to the vitality of the language.
Given the cuts councils are facing, some of them may be very happy to wave goodbye to offering Welsh classes.
The downside is that it may still further weaken the very lukewarm attachment some councils have to the language.
Far better to stop diluting and wasting resources and make a much more sustained effort to produce new speakers of working age.
If that sounds ageist, I apologise, but there are groups such as U3A which could pick up the pieces.
The report is a little dry, but I hope Syniadau will do some number crunching. There are some interesting things in the stats - look for example at the local authority figures. Carmarthenshire sticks out like a sore thumb.
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