catalan education

The controversial Reform of the Education System continues its progress towards parliamentary approval, now in the Spanish Senate. The Catalan Education Minister, Irene Rigau, stated that with the new law – which “recentralises” and totally “invades” devolved powers – the Autonomous Communities are “delegations of the Central Government”. Furthermore, Rigau asked the Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, “to be brave” and “eliminate” the Reform’s points regarding the language immersion principle. This Reform goes against the Catalan school model, which has been in place since the early 1980s and is backed by an almost-total consensus in Catalonia. Rigau pointed out that only 26 cases out of 1.2 million pupils in Catalonia had requested a different model than the one offered. According to her, changing the entire education system and the language equilibrium in Catalonia for 26 families is “abusive and counterproductive”.

The People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, used its absolute majority in the Spanish Parliament to pass a controversial reform of the Education System, which is not supported by the teachers’ unions or the rest of the political parties. Among several aspects, the new law goes against the Catalan school model, based on the linguistic immersion principle, which guarantees that all pupils master both Spanish and Catalan by the end of their studies, ensuring equal opportunities. The reform is the personal project of Spain’s Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, who used to collaborate in far-right television channels. The Catalan Education Minister, Irene Rigau, confirmed that she will take the new law to the Constitutional Court and stated that the reform will not be implemented in Catalonia in 2014.

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, which is one of Australia’s main universities, will offer Master and PhD programmes in Barcelona. The RMIT University, which has three campuses in Melbourne and two in Vietnam, is now coming to Europe and will coordinate its activities in the continent from Barcelona. The Australian education institution will also cooperate with several Catalan universities, in particular the UPC, the UPF and ELISAVA. The Catalan Minister for Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell, attended the opening ceremony. He underlined that Australia’s higher education system is “the most internationalised in the world”. He also stated that the RMIT campus in Barcelona “is a bridge towards Europe, the Mediterranean Area and Latin America”.

The parties defending the current Catalan school model, which represent 80% of Catalonia’s Parliament, met on Tuesday to discuss how to face the Spanish Government’s Education Reform, known as LOMCE. They all agreed to act together in Madrid to try to change the law. The Catalan Government proposed modifying the reform in the Spanish Parliament in order to make it honour Catalonia’s main law – approved via a binding referendum – which clearly states that Catalan is the language of instruction. The Catalan school model is based on the linguistic immersion principle, guaranteeing equal opportunities and social cohesion. The Spanish Executive’s Education Reform aims to stop linguistic immersion and allow parents to choose Spanish as their children’s language of instruction.

The Spanish Government has approved its Education Reform, which aims to make Spanish a teaching language in Catalonia and reduces the Autonomous Communities’ power to manage their education system. The new law states the Spanish Government is to decide on the curricula of the main subjects, such as History. In addition, tests will be set at the end of the schoolstages and their contents will be exclusively decided from Madrid. Since the tests will be the same for the whole of Spain, items regarding Catalan culture, geography or history will not enter into the final examinations. The Catalan Education Minister, Irene Rigau, considered the law to be “pre-democratic” and “re-centralist”. She also stated that “it is impossible to honour it in Catalonia”, since privately-owned schools teach in Catalan and the law goes against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy (Catalonia’s main law).

The poster ‘Keep Calm and Speak Catalan’ was created by Josep Maria Ganyet, expert in digital communication, in order to protest against the draft law proposed by the Spanish Minister of Education which puts at risk the school model of linguistic immersion in use in Catalonia since the end of Franco’s dictatorship. The poster, in its origin a tweet, came from the fields of social media and reached Congress as a symbol of passive resistance directed at those aiming to alter the Catalan school model. It refers to the historical poster ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, which also became one of the most wide spread pop icons.

The Spanish Supreme Court has rejected an appeal presented by one family against the Catalan Supreme Court’s decision adopted in March last year that validated the current public school model of linguistic immersion. The Spanish Supreme Court has stated that the Catalan Government does not have to change the entire Catalan school model, which has been in place since the early 1980s. However, it does have to consider individual petitions from families wanting to school their children in Spanish and make Spanish the language of instruction “in the proportion that the Catalan Government considers to be convenient” in “the school and class in which the offspring of the petitioner is being taught”.

The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, refuses to modify his Education Reform that will relegate the Catalan language in schools and re-centralise power. However, “technical improvements” could be included during the parliamentary debate. The Catalan Government “totally rejects” the current proposal as Wert “has not changed a single comma” despite the talks. Wert, famous for stating two months ago that he wanted “to Hispanicise Catalan pupils”, is pushing for a reform that will break Catalonia’s education model, which has been in place for more than 30 years. The Catalan school model guarantees knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan and it has been praised for fostering bilingualism and social cohesion by international organisations. The reform faces strong objections in Catalonia.

The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, refuses to modify his Education Reform that will relegate the Catalan language in schools and re-centralise power. However, “technical improvements” could be included during the parliamentary debate. The Catalan Government “totally rejects” the current proposal as Wert “has not changed a single comma” despite the talks. Wert, famous for stating two months ago that he wanted “to Hispanicise Catalan pupils”, is pushing for a reform that will break Catalonia’s education model, which has been in place for more than 30 years. The Catalan school model guarantees knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan and it has been praised for fostering bilingualism and social cohesion by international organisations. The reform faces strong objections in Catalonia.

The parties supporting the current school model, representing 80% of the new Catalan Parliament, and Catalonia’s School Council – with all the stakeholders – have met to decide upon a consensual answer to the Spanish Government’s Education Reform relegating the Catalan language and centralising competence. The meeting ended with a consensual decision to stick to the current Catalan Education Law if the Spanish Executive does not change the spirit of its reform and continues to insist on breaking up the school model that has been in place for more than 30 years. Cancelling the linguistic immersion model would mean splitting Catalan society into two language communities, which is absolutely not acceptable to the wide majority of Catalans. The current model has been validated twice by the Spanish Constitutional Court and is based on Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy which was approved via referendum.

More than 60 demonstrations have taken place to protest against the new law announced by the Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert. The demonstrators consider it to be “an attack” against the Catalan language, as it would no longer be a ‘core subject’ and pupils could end their schooling period without taking a single Catalan language exam. Furthermore, it would end the current linguistic immersion model, which has been in place for the last 30 years and ensures that all children end their studies knowing both Spanish and Catalan. Almost the entire Catalan political class and civil society is against Wert’s reform, as well as public figures in the rest of Spain, such as the Rector of the Madrid Complutense University. The current model guarantees social cohesion and equal opportunities. It has been praised by international organisations and has been validated twice by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

José Ignacio Wert, the Education Minister, made this statement at the Spanish Parliament, while defending the recentralisation measures he is trying to implement. Wert’s words have provoked major outrage in Catalonia. The Catalan Government, all the non-Spanish nationalist parties, trade unions and civil society organisations have qualified Wert’s statements as being “totalitarian”, “a barbarity”, and “pre-Constitutional”, reminding them of Franco times. Furthermore, many citizens channelled their outrage for Wert’s words through Twitter, making the related hashtag Spain’s main trending topic. Besides, results show Catalan students have better results in Spanish than Spain’s average.

The Catalan Education Minister reminds her Spanish peer that such measures are not legal and do not correspond to the current legislation. The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, is considering giving public funds to privately-owned schools teaching in Spanish, which would set up a de facto parallel public school system in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Wert stated earlier this week that he would work to end the current Catalan school model, which is based on the linguistic immersion principle and guarantees the knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan by all pupils, as results show.

The Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, continues to target the Catalan school system. He is trying to pass a recentralising education reform “to eliminate the 17 school systems” in place in each Autonomous Community. In addition, he is “firmly decided” on making Spanish a school teaching language in Catalonia, going against the current legislation and two declarations of the Spanish Constitutional Court. The Catalan Government has reminded people that Catalan students have better results in Spanish language than the average throughout Spain, perfectly guaranteeing the knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan. The civil society organisation defending Catalan language accused Wert of “adding demagogical political tensions”.

In the middle of the political storm referring to the relations between Catalonia and Spain, the Spanish Government announced an education reform that recentralises the school curriculum and evaluation system. The Catalan Education Ministry qualified the reform as a “total recentralisation” and a “total attack” against Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy. In the reform, the Spanish Government would impose 65% of the school curriculum and would run evaluations at the end of school and high school.