catalan school

On the same day, the Court re-affirmed its decision to keep its current Chairman in position despite his anti-Catalan public stance and having been a member of the governing People’s Party (PP) until 2011. On top of this, Catalan and Basque Members of the European Parliament from five different parties formally asked the European Commission to intervene against the politicisation of the Spanish Constitutional Court, stressing that EU democracies should have an independent judiciary. The Constitutional Court is the highest interpreter of Spain’s legislation, has to guarantee the respect of fundamental rights and acts as a referee between the different government levels and political actors. In this capacity, it ruled against the appeal presented by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) against the law that abolished the requirement to know Catalan for working as a public servant in Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, despite it being the local language.

Plans have been made by the Catalan Ministry of Education that will adjust the curricula of primary, secondary and vocational training schools to provide part of them in English. In addition, pupils will be taught a second foreign language, prioritising the mother tongues of new-comers. The changes will prioritise the improvement and expanding of foreign language learning by Catalan pupils. A pilot program will be run by 50 schools starting next September and by 2018 all Catalan schools should follow the plan. The new model will ensure that by the end of their studies students will have mastered both Catalan and Spanish, be proficient in English, and 75% of them will understand a second foreign language.

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 European Commissioner for Education, Culture and Multilingualism, promised Catalan Euro MPs to ask the Spanish Government – chaired by Mariano Rajoy - about the Education Reform it is preparing, which goes against the linguistic immersion model of Catalonia’s school system. According to the Catalan MEPs, Androulla Vassiliou was “a bit perplexed” about the Spanish Government’s initiative and the recent judicial sentences obliging teaching to be in Spanish if a single pupil in the classroom asks for it. Besides, the Spanish State Council – the Spanish Government’s top advisory body – criticised the reform’s measure obliging the Catalan Executive to pay for private schools in Spanish for the pupils who do not want to attend public schools in Catalan. The Catalan Education Minister asked the Spanish Government “to paralyse” the reform.

In an official visit to Brussels where the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, met with three Commissioners, he recognised that the European Union institutions view Catalonia’s self-determination “with great respect” but they have “some concerns” about “the potential independence” from Spain. Mas emphasised that Catalonia is too significant and relevant “not to be taken into account”. Therefore, the EU “is interested in providing Catalonia with stability” and to “not turn their backs on the Catalans’ majority public opinion”. Mas celebrated that at an international level “instead of closing the door, they listen to us”, which “is different” to the Spanish Government’s attitude.

Four Members of the European Parliament representing three Catalan parties have asked the European Commission and the European Council to declare their position regarding the linguistic immersion model in place in Catalonia’s schools. The four MEPs are reacting to a series of court decisions deriving from Spanish Supreme Court sentences and to Spanish Government initiatives against the current Catalan school model, which has been in place for the last 30 years and guarantees knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan. In fact, this model has already been praised by the European Commission, in 2007. The four MEPs represent the Centre Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), the Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) and the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC).

The Catalan Education Minister will appeal the decision to the Spanish Supreme Court and meanwhile will not follow the petition of the Catalan Supreme Court (TSJC). The Minister stressed that “the classroom language cannot change just because a child asks for it”. She emphasised that only 17 families have asked to have their children schooled in Spanish. These kids received individualised attention in Spanish but the TSJC thought it was not enough. In the last few years, the Catalan school model has been put in the spotlight by Spanish nationalism, despite having been in place for the last 30 years. The model has shown that pupils perfectly command both languages by the end of their studies. It has also been praised by international organisations, as it guarantees equal opportunities and social cohesion.

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”.

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.