As I was saying....

A New Welsh Medium Primary School is on the cards in RCT and not before time. 

However, as I was saying recently why on earth is RCT’s Labour administration wasting money on meetings they don't need.  The pretence of 'open' Cabinet session goes on even though they have already clearly made the decisions necessary.  As the press release on the RCT website says:

 “Exciting new plans to increase Welsh medium education provision by opening a new £3.3million school in the County Borough will be agreed by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Members on Monday (June 6^th 2011).

In a special Cabinet meeting, members will agree to open the first Welsh-medium primary school in the village of Llanharry, an area in the south of the County Borough where the demand from residents is greatest.”

So why bother with the meeting?  Apart from giving Cabinet Members the chance to pick up a few extra quid in expenses.

The future of YG Llanhari

The future of YG Llanhari

One good piece of news is the proposal going to RCT Cabinet (will it get passed?  oh the excitement!) to provide a new Welsh Medium Primary school at Llanhari.  There is a shortage of Welsh Medium places in RCT which is going to get worse if not addressed.

Whilst I am not wholly convinced by the idea of 3 to 19 schools, the extra provision is very welcome.  It will hopefully also increase the number of pupils going to YG Llanhari as that is currently operating at levels which are unsustainable.  It lost a huge number of pupils when the Welsh medium Secondary school in Bridgend was opened a few years ago.  It has also suffered because the replacement school for YG Rhydfelen was built in the wrong place and has attracted pupils who may otherwise have gone to YG Llanhari.

It is time that the problem of Welsh Medium provision was taken seriously in RCT and there are some very welcome proposals in this report.

RCT letting down Welsh medium education

Welsh medium education poor relation in RCT

RCT Council has never been particularly interested in Welsh medium education, no matter who is in charge here.  Strange given that the first Welsh medium secondary school in South Wales was in Pontypridd - Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen

The demand is outstripping the availability and parents across the county are being told they will have to make alternative arrangements for their children.  Why?  Thus is nothing new, this has been coming to a head for years and successive Labour and Plaid administrations have done nothing about it.

RCT came into being in 1996 and Labour Councillors generally speaking were very suspicious of those who wanted to see more Welsh medium schools – after all they were sure to be Plaid voters weren’t they?  Wouldn’t want them muddying the gene pool spreading their propaganda.

When Plaid Cymru took control in 1999 there was an expectation amongst parents of children attending and planning to attend Welsh medium schools that things would improve.  They could hardly get worse. YG Rhydfelen was falling down and the only chance for a replacement seemed to be PFI.  YG Cymmer was equally neglected, and there simply were not enough places available to meet the expected demand.

Plaid however did very little.  They did carry on with the PFI bid and build a new schools at Garth Olwg.  This campus encompassed not only the secondary school but provided a new primary school.  But it is too small, just a couple of years after it opened it is already full to bursting.

A new school was promised at Miskin to help meet the demand. Yet instead the Council decided to close YGG Llantrisant and make the new school a replacement for that.  The result?  It too is full already.

Welsh medium education always seems to come a poor second.  Far less money is spent per pupil there than in English medium schools.  Nobody seems to have the foresight or the willingness to look ahead and plan properly.   But then the same can be said with regard to a lot of things in RCT.