19-02-08
Wrexham is the latest county to publish the results of its research into the demand for Welsh medium education. Once again, the results make heartening reading.
To summarise what is a thick report of 35 pages full of facts and figures, these are the chief findings of the survey:
• Out of a total of 1,569 survey forms sent out, the response rate was 32%.
• Out of these, 36% of respondents said they were likely or reasonably likely to send their children to a Welsh medium school with 24% saying they were very likely to send their children to a Welsh medium school.
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The findings should be considered at the lower end of expectations and the real level of demand is likely to be higher.
• 89% of respondents stated they would like their children to be able to speak Welsh.
RhAG was involved at an early stage in discussing with the county techniques used in the past, and we are grateful for the opportunity we were given to work with the Education Department on planning this new survey and for the work which is taking place now and which will continue in the future as the county responds to demand which is clearly increasing.
The survey company used written responses via post and the web as well as telephoning parents to get their responses. This way they gained responses from the parents of the biggest number of children possible born between September 2005 and August 2006.
The survey shows fairly clearly that there has been a significant increase in demand for Welsh medium education in Wrexham. What is now required is a thorough interpretation of the information and turning this information into short and long term plans in order to tackle the challenges that will face education officers and Welsh medium schools in the county.
One of the requirements of county Welsh medium schemes is to demonstrate how the demand for Welsh medium education can be measured. A number of counties have already done this and some are looking into new ways of measuring the demand, either using outside providers or handling the process in-house.
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