The High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) has definitively resolved that the Turó del Drac primary school in Canet de Mar must teach one of its core subjects in Spanish. For now, however, it avoids talking about percentages of use of Catalan and Spanish as vehicular languages in class. Thus, in the latest decision on a specific language case brought by one family in late 2021, and affecting one class at the school, the court partially accepts the appeal of the complainant family against the decision of the Catalan education department, which wanted to deny it. However, the court dismisses the rest of the appeal and maintains the centre's linguistic plan.
What does that imply? The TSJC has ruled that the student must receive tuition in the Spanish language, not only in the classes dedicated to learning Spanish, but also "one or some areas of knowledge, key skills, subjects or additional subjects, which, due to their importance in the overall curriculum and division of teaching time, can be considered as core subjects". It is the latest ruling in an issue which has occupied educators, judges, politicians and families over the last two years, since a series of court rulings which sought changes in the Catalan language immersion approach used in Catalonia since the 1980s.
The Catalan High Court's ruling in the Canet de Mar case partially upholds the appeal of the student's family against the education department's decision to reject their request to modify the language regime at the school for this group.
The court recognizes "as an individualized legal situation, the [parents'] right that, while their daughter continues to be schooled in the Catalan education system, she will effectively receive in Spanish, in addition to the [classes whose subject is the Spanish language], classes in one other core subject."
Court notes need to consider families "who are passing through"
The court considers that although the aim of compulsory education is for students in Catalonia to master both languages, Spanish and Catalan, equally, those families who are passing through Catalonia cannot be ignored. For this reason, as it has already done in other previous pronouncements, the court considers that the Catalan immersion system should only be legal in a dual system of centres or classrooms separated by language.
The girl's parents wanted their daughter to be schooled with at least 25% of the hours in both Spanish and Catalan throughout her pre-university education. They also wanted the centre's entire language plan, approved in 2018-2019, to be annulled, as the two languages were not considered equally vehicular at the school. Likewise, they wanted the language project to take into account the Catalan-speaking majority of students and, therefore, for Catalan and Spanish to have a balanced presence in teaching at the centre. Finally, they also wanted all signs and communications in the centre to be in both languages.
A request that comes from afar
It was in October 2021 that the TSJC required the principal of the Turó del Drac school in the Catalan town of Canet de Mar to teach 25% of its classes in Spanish in the class of a student whose parents had requested it. The court asked the school to "teach 25% of teaching hours using the Spanish language, including, in addition to [classes for teaching of Spanish language itself], at least one other subject or non-linguistic curricular subject with a core character". Other families at the school requested the revocation of this measure, but it was rejected.
The Canet de Mar case was among the first of many that have affected Catalan school communities over the last two years. The Catalan-language immersion system, in use since the 1980s as a method to ensure that students come out of the school system with bilingual fluency in both Spanish and Catalan, has been called into question by the courts following cases brought to the courts by linguistic pressure groups and families seeking more emphasis on Spanish. In turn, the Catalan government and Parliament have passed new legislation that aimed to protect the immersion system from the courts' imposition of a percentage-based system. Now, two years on, a final ruling has been given in this one case affecting a school in Canet de Mar, north-east of Barcelona.