Pre-enrolment for next school year, to start at the end of March, could include the option for parents to choose Spanish as the language their children study in. That's the proposal being studied by the Spanish government, as confirmed this Thursday by prime minister Mariano Rajoy to representatives of anti-independence organisation Socidedad Civil Catalana, with whom he met today for two hours in Madrid.
Currently, in state schools in Catalonia, at least in theory, every subject is taught in Catalan, the exceptions being languages (including Spanish). Regardless of this, Catalan students' attainment, including in Spanish, is generally above average for the whole of Spain.
The Spanish executive is analysing whether is can bring in this option via the new measures it is planning to implement this February and March via the application of article 155 of the Constitution. The measure will be enacted by the Spanish Education ministry which, since the suspension of Catalan autonomy, has assumed the powers of the Catalan Education ministry. It could mean modifying the rules governing school pre-enrolment to include, on the form families fill in, an option for parents to choose Spanish for their children to study in.
The plan was explained by the secretary of state for Education, Marcial Marín, who said that the Spanish government is "sensitive to the problem", although he noted that they are still studying whether the measure can be pursued within article 155. Marín believes that there's still time to make the decision and, as such, said that the final verdict will be announced in a few weeks' time. The normal period for pre-registration for schools in Catalonia is at the end of March.
The announcement follows a petition for the change from the union AMES (Action for the Improvement of Secondary Education) receiving some 3,000 signatures on the website Change.org.
At the same time, the Spanish ministry confirmed that it will broaden the investigation into textbooks in Catalonia which are accused of indoctrination. It was AMES themselves who denounced "partisan ideological indoctrination" in a report last May which analysed social studies textbooks from 7 different publishers. After the report, Marín announced that he had ordered the High Inspectorate to produce a detailed report on the contexts of textbooks in Catalonia, the remit of which he now wants to expand.