Teaching in Welsh - A Form Of Child Abuse?


In Wales there are now many schools where Welsh is taught as a first language (this means that other subjects are taught in Welsh) and English is taught as a second or foreign language.

I understand and sympathise with Welsh nationalists who are proud of their history and their heritage but forcing children to learn in Welsh is a form of child abuse. Teaching Welsh as a first language is institutionalised child abuse.

Children who grow up with Welsh as a primary language will always be at an educational disadvantage at University or when trying to get a job outside Wales. There is indeed very little real demand for Welsh even inside Wales. There are very few books or magazines in Welsh and the British Government has to give over £85 million of taxpayers' money (largely provided by English tax payers I suspect) to pay for a Welsh speaking channel on Welsh television.

I am enthusiastic about Welsh schools teaching children the Welsh language. I would even accept the notion that Welsh be offered an optional, additional language in English schools. But this is political correctness gone mad. Making Welsh a primary language is done not because it is sensible but because it satisfies the politically correct requirements of a rabid minority who see their Welsh nationalism as more important than providing children with a useful education for a demanding world. The politically correct can be, and often are, both patronising and elitist.


Taken from Why Everything Is Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better (And What You Can Do About It) by Vernon Coleman, published by Blue Books. The book is available from the bookshop on this Website or from all terrestial and Web-based bookshops.


Copyright Vernon Coleman 2004


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