The ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) describes with crystal clarity what the Generalitat must do to bury linguistic immersion.
The High Court demands in its 2020 ruling - now ratified by the Supreme Court and which must be applied on June 1 - "adopt the necessary measures to guarantee that all students receive effective and immediate instruction through normal vehicular use of the two official languages in the percentages that are determined and that may not be less than 25% in either case.
The law agreed between the PSC, ERC, Junts and the commons does not satisfy any of these requirements, despite the fact that the Catalan socialists maintain that it will serve to comply with the court ruling to justify their collaboration with separatism.
Will Spanish become the vehicular language as required by the court?
No. The text that the Parliament will approve on Friday as an emergency procedure establishes that Catalan, "as the language of Catalonia, is the one normally used as the vehicular and learning language of the educational system."
Therefore, it continues to deny Castilian the vehicular condition, as is currently the case with the monolingual education system that prevails in Catalonia.
What role is given to Castilian?
The norm reserves to Castilian the role of “curricular” language.
That is, it equals it to any other foreign language that is part of the curriculum, such as English or French.
Core subjects can only be taught in a vehicular language and the TSJC ruling establishes that the extension of hours in Spanish to meet that 25% must be carried out by teaching "another core subject" in the common language.
The law promoted by the PSC makes it impossible, therefore, to comply with the court ruling in this regard as well.
The socialists favor that any eventual and inconcrete expansion of the use of Spanish be carried out by calculating activities such as workshops or, even, others that are practiced during recess hours.
Does the law set a minimum percentage of hours in Spanish?
Nor does this requirement comply with the regulations agreed between the socialists, the Catalan brand of Podemos and the parties that make up the Government of the Generalitat.
The Law Proposal on the use and learning of official languages in non-university education avoids any mention of a quota or minimum percentage of Spanish.
This was a
sine qua non
condition for the separatist forces to sign the agreement and the formation chaired by Salvador Illa did not see it as an impediment to lend their support.
Does immersion in any way make the new text more flexible?
It establishes that «the determination of the presence of the official languages in education must take into account the general sociolinguistic situation, of the centers and their environment».
The rule thus resurrects the spirit of two legal modifications that ERC and PSC already envisioned in 2018 and 2019 and that defended, precisely, adapting immersion to the sociolinguistic environment of each school, without guaranteeing in any case the right of all students to Catalonia to receive a minimum of hours in Spanish.
Could a school decide to comply with 25% Spanish?
In no case, public or concerted schools will have autonomy to apply the percentage set in the ruling of the TSJC.
The law that the Parliament will approve on Friday determines that "Spanish will be used in the terms established by the linguistic projects of each center", but then adds that these linguistic projects "must be drawn up in accordance with the criteria established by the department responsible for education, which verifies that they comply with current regulations.
In other words, the Generalitat will continue to ensure that immersion is maintained at all costs.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more