Another assault on the Catalan language. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), having received notification from Spain's Supreme Court, has today declared as final the latter's ruling in late 2020 that obliges the Catalan department of education to enforce 25% use of the Castilian (Spanish) language in all classrooms in Catalonia, whether or not families request it. In the decision, the court gives the government of the Generalitat 10 days to comply with the order, although it can still file an appeal to overturn the measure. Since the resolution, a steady stream of schools have had to meet the 25% Castilian quota in specific class groups at the request of some families who have made complaints. Catalan education officials have stated that the orders of the TSJC had to be obeyed, but that it would protect teachers. Associations and organizations in the sector, which came together in the Som Escola platform, took to the streets on December 18th to demand that the protection of the country's language should not be weakened.
Following an appeal by the Spanish education ministry in 2015, the administrative disputes chamber of the TSJC issued - on December 16th, 2020 - the controversial resolution which the Catalan educational community had interpreted as an attack on the language immersion model which all political parties had agreed on. The resolution stipulates that one other core subject as well as Castilian language itself had to be taught in this language. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court's rejection of appeals last November; now, the issue has been passed back to the TSJC, which states that when the Catalan education ministry receives the order, it has "ten days from its communication for it to be put into effect and practice what is demanded to comply with the resolution." However, it also specifies that the defendant has two months to execute the sentence, under article 104 of Spain's administrative litigation law.
Linguistic controversy
Last November, the Supreme Court announced that it did not accept the appeal lodged by the Catalan government against the 2020 ruling of the High Court of Catalonia obliging schools to teach 25% of their teaching hours in Castilian, and which refers to the now-defunct Wert law of education. The news led to an urgent media appearance by the Catalan ministers of education, Josep González-Cambray, and culture, Natàlia Garriga. "The Supreme Court has exceeded its competencies in positioning itself on pedagogical issues," González-Cambray said. For the ruling to be enforceable, the Spanish ministry of education must ask for it to be enforced, he said at the time.
Pro-Spanish union groups took advantage of the TSJC's resolution to open a new battle for language immersion with all sorts of motions. The Catalan independence movement also showed great concern at the court rulings imposing the 25% Castilian quota. In the circumstances, the minister González Cambray defended a "shared leadership" with the school centres and the need to isolate the schools themselves from the "noise".
The TSJC had ordered the obligatory level of 25% of classes in Castilian in all schools based on the case of one specific centre, that of the Puig de les Cadiretes school in Llagostera (in the Gironès county), whose school language teaching plan explicitly stated that Catalan would be "the backbone" and "vehicular teaching language". The court's administrative disputes chamber ruled that this plan was "not in accordance with the law", as it did not guarantee that children would receive "education that includes Castilian as a vehicular language in a reasonable proportion". This decision meant that there were already six school language plans that had been rejected by the TSJC, as well as the public Puig de les Cadiretes school: Frangoal School in Castelldefels (part of the concerted private system), Aura School in Reus (also concerted), Els Pallaresos secondary school (public), Bogatell School in Barcelona (public) and Josefina Ibáñez School in Abrera (public).
With the confirmation by the Supreme Court, there came new requests from families, driven by a platform close to the Ciudadanos party and its leader Carlos Carrizosa, who last Saturday threatened teachers and principals of primary and secondary schools that if they violate the sentence of 25% of Castilian, they could legally banned from teaching and lose their jobs. "We must warn and remind public officials, as well as high school principals, that they must comply with the law," he said.
In the video, Catalan education minister Josep González-Cambray after today’s ruling: “This is part of the court procedure and we knew it would happen. ... We are complying with the Catalan law of education which states that at the end of the 4th year of secondary education, all students must be competent in both Catalan and Castilian. Language learning is not about percentatges, but about teaching methods.”