Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning, Eluned Morgan visited Cylch Meithrin Pont-y-pwl, a member of Mudiad Meithrin, on Monday 16 April to hear more about the work from Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, Mudiad Meithrin Chief Executive.
The organisation will receive £3.031m per year for the next two financial years. This comprises £2.031m of annual funding and an extra £1m per year as part of the budget deal between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government.
The extra funding will allow Mudiad Meithrin to:
- offer additional support to establish new settings in priority locations across Wales where there is lack of Welsh medium provision
- develop alternative models for new cylchoedd meithrin
- strengthen Mudiad Meithrin’s regional and national structures to support its increased membership.
Torfaen has been identified as one of the priority areas for development of new provision as part of this work. Mudiad Meithrin is working closely with local authorities and other partners to ensure additional capacity developed over the coming years is targeted effectively and enabling as many children as possible to start on the journey to bilingualism.
Announcing the funding, Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning, Eluned Morgan said:
“Reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050 is a very ambitious target. Education, and early years education in particular, is key to this and this is why we have set targets to expand Welsh-medium provision by 40 Welsh-medium nursery groups by 2021 and by 150 Welsh medium nursery groups over the next decade.
“As the Welsh-medium early years and childcare specialist, Mudiad Meithrin has a vital role to play so I am delighted to announce this extra funding to help them contribute to this target.”
Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, Mudiad Meithrin Chief Executive added:
“The additional investment by Welsh Government will enable Mudiad Meithrin to open more Welsh-medium childcare provision – a key element of the government’s language strategy, ‘Cymraeg 2050’. The early years is integral to the success of that strategy and this investment highlights its importance.”
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