THE DEPUTY LEADER of Pembrokeshire County Council has defended the Cabinet from claims it is “anti-Welsh”.Cllr Paul Miller’s remark came after the content of a Cabinet discussion on Welsh-Medium Education in Pembrokeshire was criticised by the leader of the opposition, Cllr Huw Murphy, and the Welsh Language Commissioner.

During the Cabinet debate on April 28, Cllr Miller opined that Welsh-medium schools were popular because they were new and had good facilities. He added fuel to the flames generated by his words by stating that most parents don’t care what language their children are taught in, as long as the quality of the education is good.

Cllr Miller’s words no doubt express his personal view and the view of those to whom he speaks.

However, their effect was to undo much of the good work the Council had done in meeting its obligations under the Welsh Government’s Code for Welsh in Education. Moreover, a Cabinet decision to ask officers to survey parents about the reasons for their choice of their children’s education was so poorly debated that it gave the impression that only parents electing to choose Welsh-medium education would be canvassed.

While the final wording of the Cabinet resolution on canvassing parents’ views is sufficiently neutral, the manner in which the Cabinet conducted its debate raised concerns among those more deeply rooted in the Welsh language than any Cabinet member.

Cllr Miller’s words and those of other contributors to the April 28 debate were dismissive and inflammatory.

They prompted Cllr Huw Murphy to refer the debate to the Welsh Language Commissioner and request a call-in to the local authority’s powerful Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Welsh Language Commissioner’s response was blunt and excoriated the Cabinet debate.
Efa Gruffydd Jones wrote: “In 2019, the Welsh Government introduced significant changes to the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013 and also to the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (Wales) Regulations 2019.

One of the main changes was to move away from the concept of measuring demand, and, rather, to place a duty on local authorities to encourage the demand for Welsh-medium education. That is, local authorities are expected to expand Welsh-medium provision proactively, thereby encouraging more parents to choose Welsh-medium education for their children.”

She added: “It is not clear to me why there is a need to question the choices of parents regarding Welsh-medium education in particular.
“It is also difficult to see how a process of questioning parents’ motivation for choosing Welsh-medium education would be compatible with the commitments that have been made in Pembrokeshire County Council’s WESP.”

Cllr Miller’s attempt to defuse the row at the Education Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 14, was undone by his failure to reassure Committee members that the decision reached on April 28 was a neutral act by an authority merely seeking to capture potentially valuable data that might inform its future decisions. Cllr Miller constantly asked members to consider the issue in the context of the words of the resolution that the Cabinet passed. However, he failed to appreciate that the resolution’s context was framed by his and his fellow Cabinet members’ attitudes on April 28.

Instead, unwilling to apologise for fostering the wrong impression, Cllr Miller doubled down on his assertions about parents’ motivations for sending their children to the new Welsh-medium schools, stating that the parents he spoke to “couldn’t give a toss” about the medium of their children’s education. He also attacked Cllr Huw Murphy for calling in the decision and the Welsh Language Commissioner for her criticisms.

During the debate, it became apparent that the Cabinet was unaware of the additional cost of capturing the data it sought, how such a request might be framed, or how the received data would be handled. The Director of Education, Stephen Richards-Downes, could not help committee members who asked about the additional costs of the Cabinet’s proposal.

Cllr Miller might have paused to reflect that, accepting his rationale that free transport and good facilities in Welsh-medium schools enticed parents to send their children to Welsh-medium schools, the Council had work to do improving its English-medium provision.

At the conclusion of the debate, Cllr Huw Murphy pointed out the Cabinet had no Welsh speaker in its membership and that the absence of someone with a perspective on the importance of Welsh to Pembrokeshire’s communities would have avoided the loaded way in which the Cabinet conducted its debate.

The Committee voted to send the Cabinet decision back for reconsideration.