§ Mr. Bestasked the Secretary of State for Wales what financial assistance is given for bilingual education in Wales; and how many children in Wales are receiving bilingual education, expressed both numerically and as a percentage of the whole.
§ Mr. Michael RobertsThe cost of bilingual education is met from the resources available to local education authorities for education as a whole. The proposals in the Education (No. 2) Bill are designed to enable my right hon. Friend to provide some specific assistance.
In September 1978 17,643 pupils were attending the 64 schools officially designated as bilingual, representing 3.2 per cent. of the total number attending maintained schools. These figures do not include schools in traditionally Welsh-speaking areas that are, to a greater or lesser extent, bilingual in character, or English medium schools where some teaching is carried out through the medium of Welsh.