The Catalan government is remaining solidly behind the "100%" validity of its decree law on language despite this week's Supreme Court ruling annulling two schools' language plans. The general secretary of education, Patrícia Gomà, stated this Wednesday that the managements of the two schools affected by the ruling will not have to change anything, since the rulings are "becoming inapplicable" because there is now a scenario with new rules governing the linguistic situation in schools. In an interview with the El Matí programme on Catalunya Ràdio, Gomà indicated that there has been a "time lag", and this resolution has been given after the new regulatory framework came into being. "At the time of issuing the ruling, the regulatory framework did not exist and the TSJC considered that a percentage should be applied in schools", explained the education ministry secretary. "There has been a law passed by Catalan Parliament and a decree-law by the Catalan government that expressly prohibit the use of percentages", said Gomà. In this regard, she asserts that the current regulatory framework allows the application of a new legal regime regarding the uses and the learning of the Catalan language in schools. Gomà affirms that they are rulings from "well before" the 25% Spanish decision for the entire Catalan education system and that, in this case, the Supreme Court "did not enter into the substance of the question".
Gomà stated that schools will not have to apply the latest ruling, since as long as the Constitutional Court does not rule, the current norms are fully in force. In this respect, she assured that "we are convinced of the constitutionality of these norms". The education secretary argued that students in Catalonia learn and master the two official languages "as demonstrated in the different tests that are taken throughout the academic stage". As to whether there will be more rulings of this kind, Gomà stated that "certainly yes, there must be more pronouncements, I suppose that in September there will be some more pronouncements".
Supreme Court overturns the linguistic plans of two schools
For the first time on Tuesday, Spain's Supreme Court overturned the language teaching plans of two schools in Catalonia for failing to include a quota of 25% classroom time in the Spanish language in teaching programmes. An administrative disputes chamber of the Madrid-based court made the rulings after dismissing the Catalan government's cassation appeals against earlier decisions by Catalan High Court (TSJC) to impose the 25% quota in the two schools, considering that the appeals are not sufficiently founded. The court pointed out that in the Catalan government's appeal, it "had not been sufficiently substantiated, with singular reference to the case, that one or several of the assumptions that allow the cassational interest to be inferred and make a ruling required" of the Supreme Court. In March 2021, two judgments of the TSJC annulled the linguistic projects of these two schools for not being in accordance with the law "to the extent that they do not contemplate the vehicular character of Spanish as an official language, together with Catalan", and they fixed a minimum presence of Spanish in 25% of the classrooms.