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The governments of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Asturias, which are the only Autonomous Communities that are not run by the governing People's Party (PP), have protested once again against yet another recentralising measure of the Spanish Executive that violates their exclusive powers on Education. The representatives of these 5 Autonomous Communities, which together represent almost 50% of Spain's population, left a meeting organised by the Spanish Minister for Education, José Ignacio Wert, held to present a new centralist and imposed measure in this field: from now on, the final exams of the obligatory education cycle and the baccalaureate (A-levels) will be drafted by the Spanish Government, which will make sure they are "homogenous" for the whole of Spain, as Wert said. Far from being anecdotal, the measure means subjects such as History of Catalonia, Catalan Geography and Catalan Language and Literature will not be included in the exams or will be treated as second-class subjects. 

A 13-year old pupil has entered his classroom carrying a crossbow on Monday morning in Barcelona. The pupil first attacked his teacher and a student who happened to be the daughter of the teacher. Then, he fatally stabbed a substitute teacher who came after hearing people screaming. The 4 people wounded are not in a serious condition. The young aggressor has been arrested and transferred to a psychiatric unit of the Sant Joan de Déu children’s hospital. According to the Spanish Penal Code, any minor under 14 cannot be charged with a crime. All schools and high schools in Catalonia will hold 5 minutes of silence on Tuesday. The Catalan Government has declared 1 official day of mourning and has suspended all official events for this Monday and Tuesday.

Town halls and the Catalan Parliament, but also private companies, public institutions and a high school related to the victims of the Germanwings aircraft have observed a minutes silence on Wednesday at noon, in tribute to the 150 people killed in the accident in the French Alps. At least 39 of the 51 victims with Spanish nationality were Catalans, although this figure is likely to increase in the coming hours. Many were businesspeople on their way to an agri-food fair in Cologne. Among the victims there was also a group of 16 high school students and 2 teachers from Germany, whom had spent an exchange week in Llinars del Vallès (Greater Barcelona). The high school that hosted them held a homage and mourning tribute. In addition, Barcelona's Liceu Opera Theatre also observed a minutes silence, since baritone Oleg Bryjak and mezzo Maria Radner, and her family, were among the victims.

Barcelona El Prat has been the main centre in Catalonia for assisting the relatives of the passengers flying on the Germanwings aircraft between the Catalan airport and Düsseldorf that crashed in the Alps this morning. 150 people were on board and, most likely, there will not be any survivors, according to French authorities. Teams of psychologists, social workers and first responders, from the Catalan Government, the Red Cross and professional associations have been deployed at Terminal 2. Lufthansa, the owner of Germanwings, attended more than 150 relatives and booked nearby hotels to host them during the upcoming days. The flight was regularly used by Germans working in Catalonia as well as by tourists. A group of 16 German high school students was on board, after spending an exchange week in the Greater Barcelona area. At least 31 Catalans were also travelling to Düsseldorf on this flight, many of them to attend a trade fair. Catalan authorities have declared 3 official days of mourning.

The Spanish Government's Delegate in Catalonia, María de los Llanos de Luna, sent letters on Thursday to the directors of high-schools throughout Catalonia reminding them that the Constitutional Court had temporarily suspended November 9's participatory process. Furthermore she added that "neither agreements nor actions going against the Court's decision" should be carried out. De Luna explained that "allowing the use of education centres to carry out actions related to the suspended consultation vote" might go against the Court's decision. In addition, she sent similar letters to all the mayors, chairmen of supra-municipal bodies, main municipal officers and Catalan Ministers related to the participation process' organisation. Furthermore, on Friday, the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, asked the Catalan President, Artur Mas, "not to force" civil servants, mayors and citizens to "disobey the law".

The National Alliance for Self-Determination, which groups more than 3,000 civil society organisations and public institutions, met on Friday and gave its support to holding the participatory process on Sunday despite the temporary suspension by the Constitutional Court. In addition, the Catalan Government committed itself to continuing to be behind the participatory process, after several people had speculated during the last few days that it would transfer the vote's organisation to civil society organisations. The Catalan Government has guaranteed that its venues (mainly high-schools) will be opened on Sunday and will host ballot boxes. In addition, it will back town halls and volunteers if there is any judicial problem. However, the actual execution of the voting process will be entirely run by volunteers. In addition, the National Alliance and the more than 3,000 organisations that are part of it will be also backing Sunday's participatory process and will share the responsibility.

The Catalan Government is disclosing further organisation details of the alternative participatory process that will take place on the 9^th of November, which is replacing the original consultation vote that was banned by Spanish authorities. The Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, announced that 26,372 volunteers had already signed up on Monday afternoon to help in the organisation of the 9^th of November's vote. 20,000 were initially required, but Homs announced that registration would remain open because "the greater amount of resources we have, the better". In addition, high-schools will be the 700 Catalan Government's venues that will host the 6,000 voting booths. In the small rural towns and villages without high-schools, the Catalan Government is talking with municipalities to find alternatives.

‘Escola Pia’, one of the largest Catalan networks of privately-owned schools, believes that the Catalan High Court (TSJC) ruling forcing one of its school in Barcelona to teach 25% of classes in Spanish, “goes against” its educational project. The school network highlights that this project was “formally accepted by the families who have enrolled their children here”. ‘Escola Pia’ have issued a manifesto rejecting the TSJC sentence which states that if the family of a single pupil asks for classes to be taught in Spanish, “at least” 25% of the mandatory school subjects will have to be taught in Spanish in the entire classroom, regardless of the opinion of the other pupils’ families. After having received such a demand from one family, ‘Escola Pia’ explained: “We choose to teach in the Catalan language because we are deeply rooted to this country and we are at its service”.

Since it was named Mobile World Capital for a 7-year period in 2011, Barcelona has worked on becoming a world leader in the mobile phone industry. Since 2006, it is hosting the world’s main event of the sector, the Mobile World Congress, but on top of this it is also developing manifold parallel initiatives. Some of them focus on Education and the younger generation. Among such measures there is a new secondary school course, ‘Mobilitzem la informàtica’ (Mobilising IT), dedicated to creating and designing applications for mobile phones. During the first stage of the course, 5,965 pupils from 196 high-schools have studied the subject in a theoretical way. Now they are about to start the practical stage, devoted to designing and developing mobile applications to be released on the market. Pupils will be mentored by trained teachers as well as leading professionals in the sector.

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.