A Mid Wales AM has challenged the Welsh Government’s drive to cut surplus primary and secondary school places in Powys saying that it is placing rural Welsh-medium education at risk.
In a letter to the Welsh Education Minister, Leighton Andrews AM, Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, said that the pressure he and Estyn, the Schools Inspectorate for Wales, were putting on the local authority to speed up its schools modernisation programme, was putting Welsh-medium education in the county at risk and was jeopardising the sustainability of small rural communities in Powys.
The actions of the AM come on the same day as new data from the 2011 Census are released which show that more and more Welsh speakers are leaving rural areas of Wales and are heading for larger towns and cities.
The latest release of Census 2011 data comes just two months after initial figures showed an unexpected drop in the proportion of Welsh speakers, a development which may see as a "crisis" for the Welsh language.
Commenting, Mr George said:
"While there are shortcomings in the Councils’ education service, it is not being helped when you have a Government putting additional pressure on them to push forward its modernisation programme with greater speed.
"This pressure I believe is putting Welsh-medium schools in Powys at risk – we saw that with the proposed closure of Ysgol Gynradd Carno this week.
"Ysgol Carno is a good school and its inspection reports bear that out.
"If this school does close, then I believe this is just the thin end of the wedge which will potentially see real decline in Welsh-medium education in the county."
The Welsh Conservative Group Leader on Powys Council, Cllr Aled Davies, also raised concerns:
"With the Welsh language already deemed to be in crisis, we cannot afford to cut adrift small successful Welsh-medium schools just on the basis of cost alone.
"Timely decisions have to be made on the basis of a range of evidence because the sustainability of whole communities is potentially at risk."