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The West Glamorgan Question

Politics, news, comment from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online

THE only Welsh language school outside Wales has been saved by a deal struck during the frantic horse-trading for MPs' votes over the Education and Inspections Bill.

Ministers were so desperate not to lose the timetable for their Bill that they agreed to secure the future of the school in exchange for abstentions from two Plaid Cymru MPs.

Adam Price, the MP for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr, said: “This is the only Welsh-medium school in the world outside of the territory of Wales, so symbolically it has a very special place in people’s hearts in Wales. It has been in existence for almost 46 years and has never had a penny from the maintained education sector in England.

“There have been several attempts in the past to get them into the state sector because this is an anomaly. They are inspected by Ofsted, they teach the National Curriculum and they meet all the key criteria. They happen to do it through the medium of Welsh.

“So we had to overcome the obstacle to Welsh language teaching and frankly we managed to do it largely because of the new political arithmetic we have in the Commons.

Remember "The White Paper set out policies for schools in England and in relation to Wales stated: 'The policy objectives set out in this White Paper are those for England. The Bill will cover England and Wales, but most of the provisions will apply only to England.'

It isn't just the Scotch that are voting on English matters.


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