Welsh Journals

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introduction of the Welsh language into the curriculum of elementary schools in Wales. A new generation of school inspectors, particularly William Edwards, William Williams, Edward Roberts and, in the 1890s Thomas Darlington, were supportive of the Welsh language and also epitomised the more favourable and more positive official attitude towards the Welsh language in elementary schools. In the 1880s school inspectors were particularly persuaded by the case for the 'utilization' of the Welsh language in elementary schools as a medium for the more effective learning of English. William Edwards, H.M.I., at Merthyr openly supported 'The Society for the Utilization of the Welsh Language' and the introduction of Welsh into the curriculum of elementary schools in an appendix that was attached by William Williams, H.M.I., to the official report of inspection for the 'Welsh Division' in 1886. He believed that bilingual instruction was always useful 'in improving the faculties of thought and expression'. Significantly, he also maintained that the spread of English would not be retarded by the teaching of Welsh. Thomas Darlington, H.M.I. at Aberystwyth in the late 1890s, also favoured the use of Welsh as a means of education, and the better teaching of Welsh in Welsh-speaking, bilingual and English-speaking districts. These inspectors were worthy precursors of O. M. Edwards, who acknowledged the formative influence of Dan Isaac Davies in directing his attention to the need for more effective teaching of Welsh in the schools and colleges of Wales. In contrast to most of his predecessors in the inspectorate in Wales for much of the nineteenth century, who had viewed the Welsh language as a problem, Owen M. Edwards, who was appointed Chief Inspector, Board of Education (Welsh Department), in 1907, regarded bilingualism as an advantage. Significantly, the first separate Code for Wales in 1907 stated that the Board of Education urged 'that every Welsh teacher should realise the educational value of the Welsh language and of its literature which from its wealth of romance and lyric is peculiarly adapted to the education of the young'.91 A new tone had been set for the policy of the Welsh Department of the Board of Education. Bilingualism had become the cornerstone of the Inspectorate's policy in Wales. But much remained to be done in the schools and communities in twentieth-century Wales to change a mentality still influenced by the Victorian perception of 'a bilingual difficulty'. W. GARETH EVANS Aberystwyth 91 Board of Education, Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools in Wales, Prefatory Note, July 1907 (Cd.3604).