The First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, has officially launched the Framework Programme for Wales’ Centenary plans: Wales Remembers 1914-1918 or Cymru’n Cofio.
Mr. Jones made the announcement on the 28th October 2013.
The First Minister stated that the Centenary of the start of the war in 1914 “marks an important opportunity for us to remember all those who took part in the First World War and the transformational impact of the conflict in shaping modern Wales”.
The Welsh Government has put particular emphasis on education during the Centenary as “there will be very few people in Wales whose lives have not been affected by the First World War’s enduring legacy, whether they are aware of it or not”.
The First Minister stated that he wants commemoration in Wales to be “inclusive”, with national events and exhibitions accompanied by community-based activities.
“Educational legacy”
The Welsh Government has earmarked £850,000 for an educational programme to accompany commemorations.
The money will be used to produce digital educational resources and enable schools to develop a “suitable programme of activities to mark the centenary”.
The Education Minister, Huw Lewis, stated that it is important that “young people understand the events and consequences of the conflict” and this would be a key objective of Wales’ national commemoration programme.
Funding by the Welsh Government will also allow the National Library of Wales to lead a major project to develop bilingual, cross-curriculum learning resources, including an app which will act as a ‘Welsh guide to the battlefields’.
Furthermore, every secondary school in Wales will receive £1,000 to develop “creative and innovative projects to commemorate the war and to encourage debate and discussion”.
“We have left it to schools to decide how best they can do this and it may be that schools will group together to undertake collaborative projects to mark the anniversary”.
Source: Government of Wales press release
Date of press release publication: 28/10/2013
Images courtesy of the Welsh Government
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News