North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Deaf Issues, Mark Isherwood, has today called for a Welsh Government Oral Statement on the scrapped plans to introduce a British Sign Language, BSL, GCSE in Wales.
Speaking in this afternoon’s Business Statement, Mr Isherwood outlined the widespread disappointment over the decision and said Members of the Senedd “must be allowed to question the Welsh Government about this”.
He said:
“As Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Deaf Issues, I call for an Oral Welsh Government Statement to be scheduled here on the scrapped plans to introduce a British Sign Language, BSL, GCSE in Wales.
“I know you were asked about this in the Business Statement last week, and in your response you said ‘it was a decision by Qualifications Wales’, but the Welsh Government had previously taken the credit for the promised BSL GCSE on many occasions, and they're directly responsible for the ‘practical challenges’ identified by Qualifications Wales, including sufficient teaching supply in Wales.
“Alternative proposals by Qualifications Wales are seen to be a fob-off, causing great offence. The National Deaf Children's Society accused the Welsh Government of ‘going back on its word’. They and the charity Signature wrote to both the Education Secretary and you, expressing their ‘dismay, despair and disappointment at the devastating news’, and the British Deaf Association Cymru said 'This is a slap in the face for deaf children and their friends and classmates across Wales. We urgently need a BSL Act in Wales'.
“Members must be allowed to question the Welsh Government about this, and I call for an Oral Statement to be scheduled in a future Plenary session accordingly.”
Responding, the Trefnydd (Business Manager), Jane Hutt MS, again stated that the decision to suspend the development of BSL GCSE “is a decision taken by Qualifications Wales in their role as our independent qualifications regulator”.
She said:
“They published their decision to suspend the development of a made-for-Wales GCSE in BSL, but it did state their intention to develop BSL units as part of the new skills suite qualification, and that's going to be available for the first teaching in schools from September 2027. And it is also possible for Qualifications Wales to make available to Welsh schools and learners the BSL GCSE currently being developed in England, but it's important that we share this and communicate what this means and how this will be taken forward.”
