Welsh Government plans to set aside £900,000 in grants to increase Welsh-speaking teachers and teaching assistants “does nothing to fundamentally address the shortage of Welsh medium teachers”, a teaching union has warned.

The Welsh Government’s Welsh-medium capacity building grant gives secondary schools “the opportunity to find innovative ways to tackle short-term staffing problems, increasing numbers of Welsh-speaking teachers and teaching assistants.”

The grant funding comes as the Welsh Government continues to aim to reach a million Welsh speakers, and a time when schools are being switched to Welsh-medium from English-medium in a bid to boost the language.

Moves in Ceredigion and Gwynedd in recent years to move schools at the primary and secondary stages to Welsh-medium have been welcomed by language campaigners but have come in for criticism over giving parents and children a lack of choice over their education.

Concerns have also been raised over where the capacity of Welsh-speaking teachers and teaching assistants will come from to enable the plan to work, with fears that teaching quality could suffer.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle said: “Developing a teaching workforce to teach Welsh, and delivering education through the medium of Welsh, is essential in creating more Welsh speakers.

“This grant is just one of the innovative schemes we have in place to achieve this.

“I am determined to ensure we support learners to reach their full potential and provide teachers with the professional development opportunities they need to continue to raise standards in our schools.”

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, Mark Drakeford said: “We want to build a Wales where all learners have a fair opportunity to speak Welsh.

“Our Welsh Language and Education Bill sets out the next steps as we continue to work together towards reaching a million Welsh speakers.

“Grants like this are helping to make sure we have the workforce in place to achieve this ambition.”

Laura Doel, national secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, however, said the scheme “does nothing to fundamentally address the shortages of Welsh medium teachers and we urge caution in encouraging teachers to teach outside their specialisms.”

“It is not a substitute for proper investment in addressing recruitment and retention issues, including by addressing excessive workload, restoring the value of pay and attracting new Welsh speakers into the profession – rather than simply redistributing the capacity of those who can,” she said.

“The Welsh Language and Education Act is woefully unrealistic, with no plan to properly support the workforce to speak Welsh.

“It is setting the profession up to fail.”

The Welsh-medium capacity building grant is one of a number of schemes to enhance the Welsh speaking teaching workforce in Wales, including cash incentives and bursaries for teacher training through the medium of Welsh.

Last year, 55 grants were awarded to Welsh-medium or bilingual secondary schools across Wales.

Open this week for applications, schools can apply for the grant, for use from September 2025, with £900,000 available for the next academic year.