High Court annuls large part of educational decree that protected Catalan as working language

The Catalan High Court (TSJC) has annulled several key articles of the Catalan government's 2024 decree on the educational language regime, and has partially upheld the contentious-administrative appeal presented by the Assembly for a Bilingual School of Catalonia (AEB).

The decree was issued in May 2024 to strengthen the Catalan language in the face of a significant decline in its use, especially among young people. 

The court declares numerous articles, or parts thereof, null and void, which, among other things, established Catalan and Aranese in the Val d'Aran as the standard vehicular and learning languages ​​and as the usual languages ​​in school teaching and administrative activities, in relations with families, in teaching materials and in assessments.

The ruling can be appealed.

In their ruling, the judges used numerous jurisprudence from the Constitutional Court and the Catalan High Court on the matter, recalling that it had previously been established that use of Catalan and Spanish must be in "balance."

"The sections analyzed do not establish a reasonable presence of Spanish in education, but rather determine a situation of imbalance in favor of the Catalan language," the ruling affirms.

Using Catalan as the first language for teaching foreign languages ​​has also been wiped, as has Catalan being the sole language of reception for newly arrived students without providing mechanisms for balanced learning of Spanish.

The court, on the other hand, dismissed the challenge to some articles relating to internal organizational aspects of the administration, such as the use of Catalan in the external projection of the centers, the language in the selective processes or the linguistic accreditation of non-teaching staff, considering that they do not directly affect the fundamental right to education.

President vows to defend Catalan

Catalan president Salvador Illa responded to the news in a press conference on Wednesday, vowing to "defend the linguistic model" of the Catalan education system with "all our force."

"We will take all measures to defend this model," the Socialist head said, confirming that the government will appeal the High Court ruling.

Illa said he would not accept "anyone making political use of the language" as he views this as something contrary to "coexistence."

"Catalan must be a universal language for the country and for schools."

Association celebrates ruling 

The Assembly for a Bilingual School (AEB), the group which presented the original complaint against the decree which has now been contentiously held up by the judges, celebrated the news and demanded that authorities comply with it "without delay."

A statement from the organization said the judicial decision represents "a blow to the Catalan government's attempt to exclude Spanish as a vehicular language" and has claimed that Spanish "must also be a vehicular language" in education, not just a subject.

The Assembly demanded that the executive reform the educational model "and stop once and for all inventing fraudulent procedures to prevent Spanish from also being a working language in education." 

Catalan language immersion system

Catalonia has a decades-long policy of language immersion, i.e. teaching in Catalan. With Spanish the dominant language in the media and online, the education policy is designed to protect the Catalan language, ensure bilingualism, and avoid the creation of separate language communities.

An education law passed by Spain's conservative People's Party government in 2015 was the starting gun for a legal process that ended up in Spain's Supreme Court, and led to the High Court in January 2022 confirming that Catalan schools had two months to introduce a 25% quota of classes in Spanish. 

Filling the Sink podcast

Press play below to listen to the Filling the Sink podcast released in 2022 to learn more about the immersion system in Catalan schools.