• Education: Only 7% of the schools in Catalonia give another subject in Spanish in addition to the Spanish language
  • Catalonia. "With new students, Catalan is always used": this is how Spanish is relegated to Catalan classrooms

The Plenary of the Constitutional Court has endorsed the right of parents to choose Spanish as a language in the tests of the final evaluation of Primary Education . This follows from the decision reached by the court when examining the positive conflict of jurisdiction promoted by the Government of Catalonia .

The Generalitat had challenged several points of the Royal Decree of 2015 that regulated the general characteristics of those tests that are carried out in 6th grade for students of about 12 years. The Constitutional concludes that the State violated autonomous powers in some aspects, which are therefore annulled. However, it accepts that students can opt for Spanish when they carry out the final evaluation of Primary, as established in article 7.3 of the norm: "The evaluation of competences in relation to subjects other than Spanish Language and Literature, First and Second Foreign Language and Co-official Language and Literature may be carried out in the Spanish language or in the corresponding co-official language, at the option of the parents, legal guardians ".

In 2016, when the Generalitat took the matter to the TC, the Minister of Education Meritxell Ruiz said that the Royal Decree "violates" the autonomous competencies "in education and also in matters of their own language, since it provides that families can choose the language in which your children take the test (Catalan or Spanish), something that is not acceptable according to the "Catalan regional regulations.

For the Administration of Quim Torra, the language in which this exam is established by the Wert law is crucial, which is not strictly valid (since it has no academic effects) but whose results serve statistical purposes. For the Government, it is preferable for students to take the tests in Catalan, the vehicular language of learning in practice, because they get better grades and thus can justify their linguistic immersion model against those who argue that this system worsens performance. In fact, 87% of students in Catalonia who are evaluated in PISA 2015 take the test in Catalan.

The Constitutional has also considered unconstitutional two precepts of the state decree that regulates the conditions of the Primary evaluations when considering that they invaded the autonomous powers, since, as provided by the Lomce , it is the regional governments that are responsible for the design of the tests.

One is the one that established that those responsible for guidance of the schools had to make a report that accompanied the results of the test in the case of students with specific educational support needs that are taken into account when establishing adaptations Let them proceed. Another is related to the controversial context questionnaires that accompany the exam, where data on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the student are given. The decree said that these questionnaires are carried out by the Ministry of Education , which has been preparing them for years, and now the High Court tells him that it must be Catalonia who makes them.

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