Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 24 January 2017.
Caroline Jones
UKIP
1:34,
24 January 2017
First Minister, the Welsh language Commissioner said that, in order to increase the number of Welsh speakers, we need radical change to our education system. She has suggested we should consider teaching all primary schools through the medium of Welsh. It has been compulsory for every schoolchild in Wales to learn Welsh since 1999. Yet, despite this, the numbers of Welsh speakers has fallen.
Rwy’n dysgu Cymraeg.
Polls suggest that the Majority of people are opposed to compulsory teaching. Is it time that we accepted that maybe the stick approach is not working, and rather than dictating that everyone should learn Welsh, can we maybe instead make it easier for those who really want to learn? Diolch.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The language of Wales spoken by around 25% of the population. It is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Celtic group. It was made "offical" in Wales by the Welsh Language Act 1993. It is known in Welsh as Cymraeg.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
