Written question WQ97337
- Asked by
- Darren MillarConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 7 days
Question
Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the number of new Welsh speakers in relation to Cymraeg 2050 targets?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
The most recent Pupil Level Annual School Census data tell us that 24.0% of Year 1 learners entered were taught Welsh as a first language in 2024/25. This is an increase of 1.4 percentage points since the Cymraeg 2050 strategy was published in 2017.
In addition, the Welsh Government has invested significantly in ensuring that Welsh language late immersion provision is available in all local authorities. This provision now enables more learners access to Welsh-medium education that ever before. Since funding became available to local authorities in 2021, over 4,000 learners have engaged with the late immersion programme in order to continue their education journey in a Welsh-medium school.
In 2023/24, 18,330 unique learners were learning Welsh through the National Centre for Learning Welsh. This is an increase of 8% in comparison to 2022/23 and is the highest number of learners since the Centre first published data in 2017/18.