A Mid and West Wales MS has criticised the Welsh government’s “lack of ambition and commitment” towards reaching the one million Welsh speakers target by 2050.

Cefin Campbell MS cited figures that show a fall in the number of children who are receiving Welsh medium education over the last three years and the fact that only two new Welsh medium schools have opened over the same period.

Mr Campbell, Plaid Cymru’s education spokesperson said: “It is both incredibly worrying and disappointing to see the Labour Welsh Government’s lack of ambition and poor planning towards reaching the million Welsh speakers target by 2050.”

“Quite clearly there’s no hope of reaching this target with the lack of urgency and focus by the current Welsh government.

“There has been a fall in the number of children who are receiving Welsh medium education, and the fact that only two new Welsh medium schools have been opened in Wales over the last three years is a damning indictment of the lack of vision and commitment by the Labour government.

“Plaid Cymru has consistently called for more investment in teachers and for more Welsh medium schools to be opened.

“It’s clear for all to see that the strong foundations that are needed to be put in place now in order to achieve the target are just not being implemented.

“There has been no significant improvement over the last few years to the number of teachers who can teach through the Welsh language and there is a huge geographical difference within Wales as to whether there are teachers available locally or opportunities to teach through the medium of Welsh.

“There’s also a significant number of teachers who can teach through the Welsh language but are not currently employed to do so.

“The fall in the number of teachers shows that this Labour government has also not got to grips with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis we are facing in Wales.

“I sincerely hope that the Welsh government ensure that the Welsh Language and Education Bill is robust enough to enable significant growth in the language.”