Diolch am y datganiad, Weinidog.

I’m very pleased that you’ve brought this statement forward today, because you will know as well as I do that both the Welsh Language Commissioner, Rhieni dros Addysg Gymraeg, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and many, many others—a chorus of voices, in fact—have expressed their concerns about the quality and lack of ambition of the Welsh in education strategic plans that have been produced by local authorities across the country.

We know that we’re facing an uphill battle. We saw the number of Welsh speakers in Wales fall between the 2001 census and the 2011 census, and we haven’t got enough young people in Welsh-medium education in order to turn that trajectory around and meet this ambitious target—and it’s a great target that we support you with, Minister—of getting a million Welsh speakers here in Wales. We’re never going to hit that target unless there’s more concerted action being taken, both from the Welsh Government and from local authorities and other key stakeholders, in order to drive those numbers upwards. So, whilst I welcome the fact that you’ve appointed Aled Roberts to undertake these rapid reviews, I do wonder whether simply asking an independent person to come and cast their eye over these things is actually going to meet the scale of the challenge ahead.

For example, we know that we need more childcare places for pre-school-age children that are Welsh-medium places, and yet there seems to be absolutely no strategy coming forward from the Government in order to achieve an increase in that provision. We know that we’ve got problems, in terms of the continuity of people’s education through the medium of Welsh, with securing post-16 provision in FE colleges and, indeed, at universities. Now, some welcome action is taking place on that front. We’ve got the potential expansion in the scope of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to take FE into account, but it’s going to take some resources in order for us to get there. But by far the overwhelming challenge is that we’ve got insufficient numbers of Welsh-speaking teachers in the teaching workforce, and we’ve got a reduction, an actual fall, in the numbers coming through into the workplace. So, all of these things need a much more coherent strategy if we’re going to get the environment right in order to grow the number of Welsh speakers here in Wales to the sort of levels that you and I want to see.

Now, you’ve made reference to Aled Roberts’s appointment. As I said, I welcome his appointment. It’s not the only thing that you need to do. There clearly needs to be action on these other fronts as well. You’ve said that this review is going to be rapid. When do you expect him to be able to report back by? Because I tell you what: we’re never going to reach this target if we keep kicking it off beyond the next academic year. So, do you expect him to turn things around and review these things before the summer, and then for local authorities to have completed their amendments to their WESPs before the summer? I can see you nodding your head, so I’ll look forward to confirmation of that in a few moments. Can you tell us what specific action the Welsh Government is taking—I appreciate that your colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, is in the room now—particularly in respect of bursaries to encourage more Welsh-medium teachers into the workplace? Because we don’t have a bursary system that is fit for Wales at the moment. It’s not attractive enough in terms of driving up the number of Welsh speakers that are coming into the teaching workforce, and I want to see what specific action you’re going to take to address that.

You made reference to the new curriculum. That does provide an opportunity for us to do something different, but, alongside that new curriculum, we need to see a continuum developed in order that progress with the Welsh language can be assessed alongside a single qualification. This was a promise that was made to the people of Wales—that there would be one qualification assessing people’s competency in the Welsh language. I don’t know where things are up to with that, but it would be very helpful if you could give us an update today to see whether any progress has been made. I assume Qualifications Wales are involved in that particular process.

In addition to that, if we’re going to get more parents sending their children to Welsh-medium primary schools in particular, they need to be given support to develop Welsh language skills themselves. So, why can’t we have more money invested in Welsh-for-adults courses? At the moment, there are insufficient courses available to people. They’re not always available in the evening or at weekends when people might want to take up these opportunities. And, frankly, they need to be free of charge if we’re going to encourage the right sort of environment to grow the number of Welsh speakers here in Wales. It’s not just about young people; there are adults as well who also want to take up the language and the challenge of taking up the language and be using the language in their local communities. So, I wonder if you could answer those questions, Minister.