MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS HOW WELSH GOVERNMENT IS MONITORING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE SPEAKING WELSH

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS HOW WELSH GOVERNMENT IS MONITORING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE SPEAKING WELSH

Speaking after Business Questions at the Assembly Swansea East AM, Mike Hedges said…. ‘We are all aware that the Welsh Government is putting a lot of resources into increasing the number of Welsh Speakers; I am one of those learning the language myself. It is important however to have a system in place to monitor and assess the success of the extra investment. I was interested to know what the Minister is expecting in 2 years’ time. I think that the initiatives to increase the number of people speaking Welsh is to be greatly welcomed.’
Mike Hedges AM – On a personal level, I’m trying to increase the number of Welsh-speaking teachers by one. Whilst we will not know the number of Welsh speakers in 2050 because there’ll be no means to find that out, we’ll know the number after the 2021, 2031, 2041 and 2051 censuses. How many Welsh speakers do you expect in the 2021 census? One thing I do know is we’re not going to go from 600,000 to 1 million in a one-year period. 231

Eluned Morgan AM 15:53:58

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Well, what’s clear is that we have put in place a strategy for the long term. Of course, we have to ensure that we measure our progress along the way. The fact that the annual population survey has demonstrated that now 896,000 people are able to speak Welsh gives us some hope. Of course, we have to be aware that that isn’t the yardstick that we use—we are actually using the census as our yardstick. One of the things that we have to do is to ensure that people who are able to speak Welsh have the confidence to say that they speak Welsh. That is a problem for many people, and I do hope, for example, Mike, that by 2050 you will be one of those people who will have the confidence to tick that box to ensure that you, too, can say that you are one of that million.