WELSH CONSERVATIVE AM candidate, Stefan Ryszewski, has hit out at proposed plans to abolish English medium teaching in Llangennech School claiming that ‘forcing’ the Welsh language on communities will do more harm than good for the language.
Stefan said: “As a fluent Welsh speaker myself, I want to see more done to help promote the Welsh language and ensure its longevity. But forcing it upon a community and school is doing the complete opposite.
“As a Welsh Conservative, I firmly believe that people should be given the choice as to whether parents want their child to learn Welsh. It is a disgrace that Llangennech’s two Plaid county councillors are ignoring a petition being circulated and signed by over 180 local people against the abolition of English medium teaching and backing this motion.”
He said, “I will be campaigning on the doorstep in Llangennech with local people to make their voice heard!”
The Conservative AM candidate for Llanelli suggested that people will take their children out of school in search of education to meet their needs. He said: “English Speakers will have to travel outside the village to meet their needs costing around £20 a month plus an increase in carbon footprint and their time. Also, some families don’t have cars so could face travelling difficulties.”
Stefan also raised his concerns regarding children with learning difficulties and how they would cope having to learn Welsh. He said, “For those with learning difficulties/ disabilities (25% of pupils in Llangennech School) may struggle to learn Welsh and English and may be forced from the village to learn English as it is more of an international/digital age language.”
The Conservative candidate claims that the change to Welsh medium would mean a lack of choice for the council tax payers of Llangennech He said, “Llangennech English speaking residents are not being offered a school that is comparable with Llangennech in terms of its performance rating and ease of location. We pay one of the highest council taxes, yet we will not receive the services we’re paying for. This is unacceptable.”
Stefan told The Herald that he believed that 27% of the school’s pupils were already from outside Llangennech.
He said, “This is set to increase by another 25% if English Speakers are not allowed access in their own community. Over 50% of pupils will not be from the village! This is discrimination, as the school will not be able to support those it is meant to provide for.”
Calling the proposal itself ‘Welsh-Centric’ he went on to say, “The preferred proposal (Option 3) contains five advantages which state the same thing; that it is beneficial to the Welsh Language Strategy. The only disadvantage recorded is the loss of Dual Stream!! There are many more disadvantages here, that are unaccounted for and again I feel this is discriminatory as the social, economic, environmental factors are simply being buried/ignored.”
In his final attack on the proposals he targets the local authority and says that the approach to raising awareness around the proposed school changes is also discriminatory. He said, “Those directly affected have not been adequately informed and have been misled by the authority into thinking that the proposal is around a school name change only.”
He concluded: “My suspicions are that the less people that are aware, the less resistance. This only serves my point that the demand for a Welsh Medium only school is not valid; otherwise there would be more openness and transparency in line with the Council’s core values. This is not the case.”
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