BILINGUALISM IN THE
SECONDARY SCHOOL IN WALES
I
The background of the Secondary School in Wales
THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE PASSING OF THE INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION Act (1889) and the issue of the Report of the Departmental Committee on Welsh in Education and Life (1929) was one in which steadily increasing attention was given to the position of Welsh in the secondary schools of Wales. The Committee's Report not only made valuable suggestions as to how the position of Welsh could be improved, but also outlined a policy for all types of schools and educational institutions. The intervening period has been one of progress, but that progress has been slower than many would have wished, and it has not been uniform over the whole field of development as envisaged by the Departmental Committee's Report. The literature of the subject has grown substantially, and the Welsh Department has made its steady contribution to that literature. Its most recent publication is a Memorandum dealing with the work of the infant and junior schools: this has been well received and has been reprinted to meet current demands. The expansion of secondary education which is now proceeding emphasises the need for discussion of the problem at the secondary stage and the present pamphlet is designed to meet that need.
A general statement of the problem of Welsh in the secondary school appears in Chapter XIV of the Norwood Report.
- (i) Wales is a country with a language, history and culture of its own.
- (ii) In rural Wales, which comprises three-quarters of the geographical area of Wales, the Welsh Language is still the home language of the very large majority of the inhabitants. In industrial South Wales English is the home language of a majority of the inhabitants, as it also is in some measure in the coastal areas of Wales and in the border counties, though the minority is substantial.
- (iii) Welsh literature and cultural institutions have a history of over a thousand years. Their life and vigour persist today. Modern Welsh writers, both in prose and poetry, are widely read; weekly and monthly periodicals maintain their hold upon the life of the people; Welsh drama flourishes; the National Eisteddfod—concerned with
