A “striking” decline in the number of newly qualified teachers able to teach in Welsh could undermine the country’s ambition to have a million speakers of the language in 30 years’ time, a report warns. The Welsh language commissioner, Aled Roberts, expressed concern about the trend and called for the devolved government to take urgent action to reverse the fall. Three years ago ministers in Wales launched a plan to almost double the number of Welsh speakers by 2050, with a key plank of the strategy being a steady increase the number of professionals teaching through the language. But the commissioner’s report says: “There has been a striking reduction in the last five years in the number of newly qualified school teachers (NQTs) who can speak Welsh or are able to work through the medium of Welsh.” There has been a drop overall in the number of NQTs in Wales, the report points out. But it continues: “The 23% reduction of NQTs able to speak Welsh, and 27% reduction in those able to work through the medium of Welsh, far exceeds the 8% reduction in total NQTs.” According to the report, there were 285 NQTs able to work through the medium of Welsh last year, compared with 388 in 2015. Roberts said: “In order to be close to meeting the targets set by the government, we need a radical increase in the number of teachers in Wales able to teach through the medium of Welsh. Urgent action is required.” Roberts said it was worrying that a “significant number” of teachers who are fluent or fairly fluent in Welsh do not teach in Welsh. He said this included people who grew up in English-speaking households, left school able to speak Welsh fluently but do not have the confidence to teach in the language. The commissioner makes a string of recommendations including setting targets relating to Welsh language skills for providers of teacher training and doing more to promote grants to encourage more people to learn to teach through Welsh. Dilwyn Roberts-Young, the general secretary of the Welsh teaching union UCAC, expressed concern at the figures. He said: “The Welsh language commissioner’s report rightly emphasises the need to have a clear vision for recruiting and retention of teachers and to facilitate pathways to learning Welsh and developing existing Welsh language ability. “In attracting potential teachers to the profession there is a need to look at broader issues of appropriate salaries, reduced workload and clear career pathways, which can ensure that teaching in Wales is a valued profession.” A Welsh government spokesperson said recruiting Welsh-medium teachers remained a priority. The spokesperson said the government provided “substantial financial incentives” and ran marketing campaigns to attract new Welsh-medium teachers.