catalan school

With students all over the country returning to the classroom, we provide an overview of how Catalan schools function

Magistrates ask prosecutors if decree and law approved in Catalonia should be taken to the Constitutional Court

Barcelona hosts event to help multinational families choose the right school for their children, with pre-registration stage underway

Protesters peacefully take to streets in Barcelona to reject court ruling imposing Spanish quotas

Only half of 12-15 year olds have received full immunization, with two thirds of 16-19 year olds inoculated

Pre-registration runs from March 15 to March 24 and applications must be completed online

Catholic order says it is "profoundly ashamed" and offers compensations from 4k to 50k euros to victims

Judges endorse existing regulations on the use of Catalan in classrooms amid unionist accusations of "indoctrination"

Heads of PP and Cs parties accuse Catalan educational system of "indoctrinating" students in favor of independence

A quarter of surveyed families don’t want politics discussed in the classroom

Police prevented both rallies from mixing up and there were no major incidents

Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSJC) has ruled against the petition filed by the Spanish Ministry of Education that asked to reopen the enrolment process for the next school year in order to use registration forms in which parents could explicitly choose whether they wanted their children to be taught in Spanish as an instruction language. In the last few years, the Spanish Government has been undertaking a judicial battle to change Catalonia's school model, which has been developed with an extremely wide consensus over the last 35 years and completely guarantees the knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan, as results show. The model is based on the linguistic immersion principle, through which children are mostly taught in Catalan, although many flexible measures are included. However, the Spanish Government would like to have Spanish as an instruction language as well, despite most of the pedagogic experts considering that if this were the case, many children from Spanish-speaking environments would not have a proficient knowledge of Catalan and would not be bilingual.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reviewed and improved its economic growth forecasts for Spain, going from a 2.5% growth rate for 2015 forecast in April to a 3.1% one foreseen this June, and from 2% to 2.5% for 2016. However, the IMF has also issued recommendations and warnings, emphasising that Spain will have to carry out "additional fiscal efforts" and "structural reforms" in order not to jeopardise the country’s economic recovery. The IMF recommends that Spain reduce the costs of public healthcare and education by making users pay for part of the services. According to the international organisation, Autonomous Community governments – such as Catalonia's – should have greater fiscal responsibilities in such systems since they exclusively manage them. In this vein, the IMF has praised the fiscal consolidation efforts undertaken over the past few years by regional governments and has asked for an increase in their funding and fiscal powers, as well as for the adapting of the deficit targets to their needs.