A new strategy. The High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) has forced a public educational centre in Barcelona to teach at least one subject in Spanish, apart from the Spanish language itself, without establishing percentages. It is the first ruling from the high court that orders the extension of classes in Spanish after the entry into force of decree law 6/2022 and law 8/2022, passed by the Catalan government in 2022 to overcome the TSJC ruling that ordered 25% of classroom time in Spanish in all schools in Catalonia. The president of the pressure group, Assembly for a Bilingual School (AEB), Ana Losada, made the ruling public on Tuesday, and maintains that this resolution creates jurisprudence and opens the door to admit appeals by more families who ask to send their children to school. The TSJC has also denounced articles of the new regulations to the Constitutional Court considering that Spanish was not guaranteed as a vehicular language.
For its part, the Catalan education department affirms that the ruling announced by the AEB is "from a case prior to the approval of the new regulations" brought in by the government and that it does not infer a new approach. According to education sources at the ACN agency, since the passing of the Catalan government decree rejecting the application of language percentages and the law on the use and learning of official languages in non-university education, "no new school has had to apply a Spanish percentage due to imposition by the courts".
Certainly, the TSJC is now resolving the appeal of a family which was presented in 2019, but the sentence of the Catalan High Court is from last Friday, December 23rd, and it partially upholds the appeal presented and declares "the right of the plaintiff's daughter that, while she remains schooled in the Catalan educational system, she receives effective education in Spanish, apart from the subject or subject corresponding to the learning of this language, one or more additional subjects or subjects which, due to their importance in the curriculum as a whole and their teaching load, could be considered as core".
The new interpretation of the TSJC
In a press conference, the lawyer José Domingo, representative of the AEB, assured on Tuesday that the TSJC decision "changes the planning that the Generalitat had made and leaves without effect the strategy designed by the governors to end the linguistic conjunction model". The ruling states that "one or more subjects or additional subjects", aside from the Spanish language itself, must be taught in this language. They will also have to be subjects "that, due to their importance in the curriculum as a whole and their teaching load, can be considered as core", adds the court.
Specifically, the judge Eduard Paricio, who was the spokesperson judge for the new ruling, states that "the legitimacy of an individual person cannot be questioned to discuss the legality of a rule or a general provision that affects them, regardless of whether this may also affect other people". It adds that the teaching use of languages in a class or in a group must be defined by the school in accordance with the legal system, without exception: Decree Law 6/2022 and Law 8/2022, "while they are formally in force, but also respecting the rest of the legal provisions, including the Constitution and the model of linguistic conjunction that this rule imposes".
Physical Education in Spanish
In the reported case, the complainant's daughter was taught the subjects of Spanish Language and Physical Education in Spanish. In addition, she was given individual attention in the same language, and it was also stated that communications and circulars sent to the family were sent in Spanish, based on the precautionary measure imposed by the TSJC, which adds: "Be that as it may, we must consider that the presence of Spanish is insufficient, taking into account the nature of the subjects and the teaching hours taught in this language."
The TSJC argues that "Physical Education is one of the 8 areas of primary education, and it has reached a sufficiently relevant importance in education and in its significance for the student, given its links with sport and also with physical and mental health, according to the contents attributed to this subject. However, states the TSJC, it is no less true that the use of language does not have the relevance in this subject that it has in other subjects, so that it could probably be considered that the vehicular use of Spanish is inferior to that of "English which, with the same number of teaching hours, includes two compulsory curricular subjects, in which the use of the language is intensive and of great relevance".
The court concludes that "even if a percentage parameter cannot be used as requested by the appellant, the precise knowledge of the specific situation of the affected student allows in this case to establish a guarantee of the adequacy of the use of the official languages, in accordance with the system of linguistic conjunction in terms substantially the same as those requested, specifically, recognizing the actor's right that, while his daughter remains schooled in the Catalan education system, she should effectively receive in Spanish, apart from the Spanish language, one or more additional subjects or subjects which, due to their importance in the curriculum as a whole and their teaching load, can be considered as core".
Constitutional Court appeals
The TSJC thus maintains the defence of individual rights in the educational case, while the two new regulations passed by the Cataln government in 2022 to overcome the court imposition of percentages in Catalan schools have themselves been appealed to the Constitutional Court by the Spanish unionist parties, and alos by the TSJC itself, which imposed the Spanish percentages in all schools in Catalonia, ensuring that the new regulations do not protect the officiality of the Spanish language. The Constitutional Court admitted the appeals on grounds of unconstitutionality for consideration and for now there is no date for their debate.
In the main photo, the lawyer José Domingo and the president of the Assembly for a Bilingual School (AEB), on Tuesday. / Photo: Gerard Artigas / ACN