Another attack on Catalan schooling. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has annulled the language plan established by the Vora del Mar primary school in the coastal town of Cubelles, south-west of Barcelona, and has ordered that 25% of teaching hours be taught in Castilian (Spanish) for one class group. With this decision, the court has decided to partially support the claim made by a family. As has been announced this Thursday, the TSJC argued that the school's language plan "does not take into account the vehicular nature of Spanish as an official language in conjunction with Catalan", and has therefore set a minimum of 25% of classroom hours to be conducted in Castilian, as it had earlier done for other schools, with the most recent being the Turó del Drac school in Canet de Mar.
Students' rights
In a ruling released today, the court recognized the right of the primary school pupils to receive education, during their general classes and the groups of which they form part, that includes the Castilian language in a reasonable proportion, which, as upheld by the Supreme Court, has been set at a minimum of 25%. The family filed a legal claim after the Catalan education department turned down their request in November 2019. In a suit filed on July 14th this year, the claimants demanded their child's right to be taught in Catalan and Castilian in an equal proportion. They also demanded that, if the administration were to find that the sociolinguistic circumstances should favour Catalan, a different proportion should be established, with a minimum presence of Castilian of 25%. Finally, they demanded the annulment of the entire language plan of the school, citing as an example the previous decision in a school in Llagostera.
Twenty-five percent
This administrative disputes chamber of the high court noted that a previous ruling had been made in response to a similar claim and it resolved, as on the previous occasion, to partially uphold the appeal. Accordingly, for the rest of this school year, teachers and students will have to switch to Castilian for at least one more core subject, in addition to the hours dedicated to teaching the Castilian language itself.
Today's decision follows the same line as that taken by the court on previous occasions, with the latest being the judgement on a single class of five-year-olds at a school in another coastal town, Canet de Mar. In that case, the teachers decided to use Castilian with the class in the afternoons of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They and their students will also speak Castilian for one hour in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Main photo: Back to school at Mirades school / Sergi Alcàzar