Teaching of Welsh history

Until the latter part of the 20th century, the teaching of Welsh history was predominantly taught from a British or Southern English perspective. In recent decades, there has been a notable increase in emphasis on the teaching of Welsh history, a trend that has persisted into the 21st century.

Presently, it is mandatory for schools in Wales to incorporate Welsh history into their curriculum. This requirement was not enforced until the 1990s. This mandatory inclusion of Welsh history is now an integral component of the Curriculum for Wales (2022–present), as stipulated by the Welsh Government. As part of this new curriculum, the teaching of Welsh history, alongside the study of ethnic minority history, has been introduced and mandated since September 2022.

Teaching of Welsh history

Before 1939

As a result of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, secondary provision in Wales far outstripped that in England before the Second World War. The legislation enacted several of the proposals made by the 1881 Aberdare Committee, appointed to enquire into ‘the state of intermediate and higher education in Wales’, and was one of the first pieces to apply to Wales alone. The committee recommended the founding of two university colleges in Wales (University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff, 1883 and University College of North Wales in Bangor, 1884), and stressed the general dissatisfaction with secondary level provision in Wales. In response, the act created a system of publicly funded intermediate (selective secondary) schools in Wales along with a new system of local administration, and, in so doing, established a firm precedent for ongoing claims over the next century that Wales had distinct educational needs from those across the border.